Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Lenga.

Members will be asked to declare any pecuniary, non-pecuniary and any other interests in respect of items on the agenda.

Councillor Madlani declared for transparency in relation to item 4 (Deputation objecting to the sale of The Central YMCA on Great Russell Street) that he was a former member of the YMCA club.

Councillor Olad also declared in relation to the same item that he and his children were also former members of the YMCA club.

Webcasting of the Meeting

The Chair to announce the following: “In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record and film public meetings, I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for six months after the meeting.  After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available on DVD upon request.

If you are seated in the room it is likely that the Council’s cameras will capture your image and you are deemed to be consenting to being filmed and to the use of those images and sound recordings for webcasting and/or training purposes.”

Any other announcements

The Chair announced that the meeting was broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and could be viewed on the website for six months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts were archived and could be made available on DVD upon request. Those who were seated in the Council Chamber or participated via Teams were deemed to have consented to their contributions being recorded and broadcast and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.

Additional Information received in relation to the deputation objecting to the sale of the Central YMCA building.

The Chair announced that he received just before the start of the meeting an email from the Chief Executive of the YMCA setting out their views on the sale of the YMCA building which had been circulated to the deputees and published on the Council’s website.

Requests to speak at the Committee on a matter within its terms of reference must be made in writing to the clerk named on the front of this agenda by 5pm two working days before the meeting.

The Chair informed members that he had received two deputation requests. The first was from The Highgate Society and LEBOC Residents Group requesting that the Dartmouth Park Healthy Neighbourhood Scheme be included on the Committee’s Work Programme for 2024/25. He said he had agreed that the issue would be included on the Committee’s Work Programme for consideration at a future Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee meeting and there was no need for the deputation which had therefore been withdrawn.

The second deputation which had been accepted was from David Bieda accompanied by Joshua Von Uexkull and opposed the sale of the Central YMCA building on Great Russell Street. The deputation statement was included in the supplementary agenda. In addition, Councillor Sue Vincent had requested to speak in support of the deputation, which the chair had agreed to.

Deputation opposing the sale of the Central YMCA building.

Consideration was given to the deputation statement referred to above.

Councillor Vincent informed the Committee that the YMCA building and club was an important local facility of great importance to the community evidence of which was shown by the very large turnout of people at the meeting this evening. Members of the community were shocked that that there had been no discussion or consultation with members or the community about the closure.

She was concerned that there had been no audit or needs assessment to determine what facilities the borough required and asked that the Committee support the retention of these much loved, valued and vital amenities and support the recommendations in the deputation statement.

The following response was given by the deputee to members questions:

• The closure of the YMCA was a similar situation to what had occurred with the closure of the Jubilee Sports Hall. The YMCA should have called a meeting to discuss the concerns with the building and consider ideas to resolve the situation and a way forward.
• There had been a consensus in the community that the building and facilities at the YMCA had not been properly managed.
• It appeared that no information had been provided to staff or the membership on what would happen with regards to the proceeds of sale of the building.
• There was concern about governance issues, financial management and legality relating to the sale of the building.
• The lead campaigners objecting to the sale of the building had appealed to the family that owned the building to change their mind and stop the sale.
• The campaign to stop the sale of the building was not sure if the building had already been sold.
• The campaigners were not sure which other facilities in the borough, YMCA members could use should the building be sold.
• It was not for Camden officers to look for alternative facilities for YMCA members, it was up to the Committee to support the campaign to retain the YMCA.

Oliver Jones, Director of Recreation and Council Nadia Shah, Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities and Cohesion made the following comments in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

There was none.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities and Cohesion.

The Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities, and Cohesion is providing the Culture and Environment Scrutiny Committee with her annual report for discussion.

Consideration was given to the annual report of the Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities and Cohesion.

In response to questions, Councillor Nadia Shah (Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities and Cohesion, Oliver Jones (Director of Recreation) made the following points:

• With regards to whether there was enough focus on loneliness, the Council did a lot of work with Voluntary Community Sector partners and Community Champions in bringing people together and out of isolation.
• A lot of activities and funding from the Council as well as development work in the community had gone to bringing people out of isolation.
• These activities and the work could be worded in the Annual report next year as bringing people out of loneliness or reducing loneliness.
• The warm welcome work was not included in the report this year as it had been well established and was ongoing.
• Payng a London living wage to employees was also a requirement from sub-contractors working for the Council.
• As a borough of sanctuary, the Council had achieved some key milestones including securing long term housing solutions for Afghan and Ukraine refugees ensuring that they had a safe and stable environment to rebuild their lives.
• Over the past year, the Council’s resettlement schemes had provided accommodation tailored to the needs of vulnerable families alongside the practical support for those transitioning from temporary housing into permanent arrangements.
• In terms of access to education and skills the Council had focussed on the educational opportunities that could be provided to refugee children particularly those rapidly integrated into local schools.; while adults benefited from English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), which were programmes developed with community partnership organisations as well as Voluntary Community Sector partners.
• Vocational training and Curriculum Vitae (CV) writing workshops had been expanded to support people from refugee communities with the skills to enter the job market.
• The Council had also collaborated closely with employers, including business, voluntary organisations and charities to provide pathways into sustainable jobs for refugees as economic independence was important for community integration.
• In terms of community engagement and cohesion, this was facilitated by encouraging interaction between refugees and local communities at events, such as interfaith dialogues and cultural exchanges. Refugees were also welcomed to Community Sponsorship Schemes where spaces were created and refugees felt welcomed.
• With regards to Brave Cafes, this related to engagement sessions to dispel myths and stigma involving deep set issues around discrimination and equality.
• The concept of Brave Cafes was based on research and studies undertaken around concepts of discrimination and a methodology used to combat these issues in other European cities. Camden in conjunction with Leeds were leading on this in the UK.
• Camden had conducted 4 engagement sessions, on racism, domestic abuse, the LGBT+ community and the refugee community. They were conducted to promote community cohesion, by sharing experiences, fostering understanding and talking together in safe spaces.
• There had been a lot of learning and recommendations gleaned from the sessions which would be made available in a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Report of the Director of Recreation.

The report provides an update on the Council’s Biodiversity Strategy and Biodiversity Action Plan.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Recreation.

Members made the following comments:

• The work on biodiversity in the borough was welcomed, the London Wildlife Trust were leading on biodiversity national policy net gain issues and considering how it could be made fit for purpose. Could Camden not play a role in supporting the Wildlife Trust on a national level particularly as they had some of their sites in the borough.
• It was a great report and good to receive updates every year to see the amazing work going on.

Oliver Jones Director of Recreation, Greg Hitchcock Nature Conservation Officer (remote attendance) and Councillor Adam Harrison, Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden gave the following key responses to questions:

• The Council worked closely with London Wildlife Trust mainly because of Camley Street Nature Reserve where the Council helped fund some of the decontamination work. Camden along with other boroughs also worked with the Trust on a review of the metropolitan sinks for the GLA.
• The Nature Conservation Team worked with Highways Team colleagues and other boroughs such as Islington in providing nature-based solutions including greening and vegetation on the highways.
• The Council’s Highways Team were working hard to influence TfL to look at the whole risk area on the highways including suburban drainage, rain gardens and tree planting rather than just transport outcomes. For example, there was some recent work on Euston Road which Highways colleagues portrayed as an environment everyone could aspire to.
• With regards to highlighting the benefits of nature and biodiversity to the wider public, one of the recommendations from the Cabinet Adviser on Promoting Green Space and Biodiversity’s report was the creation of a new area on the Council’s website explaining the climate and ecological benefits of biodiversity. This part of the Council’s website was scheduled to go live by the end of the year providing all this information.
• The Council also hosted a lot of schools at its nature reserves, with the Nature Conservation Officer also doing a lot of work with schools encouraging them to make use of green spaces.
• With regards to hedgehogs, the Council was working hard to improve existing sites and tunnel connections.
• With regards to whether there was still a roof garden in Camden Town Hall, officers would check whether the roof garden was still in existence or what had happened to it although there was a brown garden with vegetation at the Council building at 5 St Pancras Square.
• In relation to the location of beehives in the borough, there was no longer a requirement to register beehives, although there was a lot of local interest in bees the Council did not hold any information except for those on Council sites of which there were not that many.
• There were biodiversity features on the roof of Camden Town Hall to support local bat and bird populations.
• In relation to the role of the new Nature Engagement Officer, they would be responsible leading on community  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of the Director of Recreation.

This report describes the contribution that the Council’s Leisure Service, particularly its leisure centres, is making towards creating a physical activity environment to improve the health and wellbeing being of our residents. 

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Recreation.

Committee members made the following comments:

·       With the potential closure of the YMCA building, it would be good if the Council could signpost YMCA users to other available facilities in the borough.

·       It would be good if Holborn and Covent Ward Councillors could be informed of this so they could help facilitate this for YMCA members and other users of those facilities.

·       The Council should learn from the Knowledge Quarter the culture of thinking of these sports facilities as community assets and signposting people to make the most of them.

In response to questions, Justin Hill (Strategy and Partnerships Manager, Alex Wood, Performance Officer, Alex Harrison GLL Partnership Manager, Paul Lister (GLL Head of Service, Katy Knight, Head of Leisure (remote attendance) and Oliver Jones, Director of Recreation made the following points:

• With regards to providing up to date stats of current users of leisure facilities in the borough, there were different data sets in the report.
• There was the Camden specific data in paragraph 3.4 of the report which related to the health and behaviour question. This data was collected every two years, the information used in the report was the last cycle of data and it was hoped that updated data would be available for the next cycle.
• The other data in paragraph 3.6 of the report was from Sports England Active Lives data which had just recently been announced.
• In terms of information being Camden specific, the sample sizes were quite small so could only be used as a rough guide but it would not provide the raw data where there was far more control over data collection such as specific links to leisure centres as opposed to the broader work of the Sport and Physical Activity Service.
• The data was difficult to capture when out in the field coaching in parks or after school. However, within the Leisure Centre field, GLL operating membership system and subject to what information people disclosed, intelligence could be gathered around who was using the Leisure Centre and who was not which was a key focus area for the Council.
• Leisure Centres also conducted an annual survey to know who was using the service.
• Officers had done some work on who was and who was not using leisure centres. One of the underrepresented groups was the South Asian Community of which the Council along with GLL were encouraging members from this community to make more use of the centres. 
• The Council had made this a formal performance indicator to improve access to sports facilities to disproportionately under-represented groups in the community.
• In terms of data collection, the Council was operating a number of targeted interventions the first was the Get Active Service where the Council worked with selected GPs from deprived areas to address long term medical conditions and the other was around the Active Life Campaign which was targeted at older adults to ensure residents understood the offer. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Director of Public Safety.

This report outlines the Council’s approach towards tackling ‘environmental crime’ which supports the strategic aim of a safe and clean Camden. The report refers to the creation of the new multi-disciplinary Community Safety Enforcement service which has been designed to underpin the enhanced Council approach towards tackling on-street anti-social behaviour and environmental crime.

The report provides an overview of the remit of the Community Safety Enforcement service and an indication of the activity delivered since its inception earlier this year

Officers for this item attended the meeting remotely. Due to issues with the technology members could not hear officers’ responses to their question and therefore could not consider this item. Members asked that the item be carried forward to the meeting in January.

Action By: Head of Community Safety.

The Committee also asked that in future the main lead responding to questions about the report should attend the meeting in-person rather than remotely.

Action By: Head of Community Safety Director of Public Safety

Report of the Executive Directors of Adults and Health, Children and Learning, Supporting Communities and Corporate Services.

This report focusses on the second quarter of the year (Q2) 2024/25 using a broad range of measures from each directorate and division across the organisation. In this report, Camden Directors have been asked to provide a narrative covering key areas of challenge, opportunity, and learning.  

This report is divided into two main sections:

• A summary which highlights key responses from directorates and highlights particular cross-cutting themes;  
• A detailed summary of individual service responses for Q2 2024/25 across each of our three Directorates. 

Appendix A contains the data dashboard.

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Directors of Adults and Health, Children and Learning, Supporting Communities and Corporate Services.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report, including the most recent data and trends and the emerging challenges identified, be noted.

Report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities.

This paper provides an update on the work programme for the Committee for the 2024/25 municipal year and tracks actions from previous meetings.

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities.

Members discussed the work programme and suggested that the following items be moved:

• The Cleaner, Safer Camden to be carried forward to the January 2025 meeting.
• Lime/Bike/ Scooters – members asked that this item be brought forward and considered at the January 2025 meetingsubject to– Transport officers being able to meet the report submission lead in deadlines.
• The Dartmouth Park Healthy Neighbourhood Scheme be included on the Committee’s Work Programme for 2025/26 municipal year.

Subject to these changes it was

Resolved:

That the report be noted

There was none.