Issue - meetings

This report presents a review of potential governance options for the Barham Park Trust.

i)     That with respect to the future governance of the Barham Park Trust, the status quo be maintained as set out as Option 1 in the report from the Strategic Director, Regeneration and Environment.

ii)    That with the exception of the Annual General Meetingof the committee which would be formally scheduled in the Brent Council calendar of meetings for 2018-19, meetings of the committee would be arranged on an ad-hoc basis to meet the operational requirements of the Trust. 

Looqman Desai (Senior Solicitor, Governance) introduced the report regarding the review of the future governance of the Barham Park Trust. The report asked Members to review afresh the five governance options which the committee had previously considered at its meeting on 28 January 2015. On that occasion the committee had opted for the status quo, namely, the Council continuing to directly discharge its Trust functions via its Cabinet Members and officers. As a matter of good practice, the committee had chosen to keep this arrangement under review. Looqman Desai advised that the report before the committee presented Members with the opportunity, with the benefit of a further two years of experience of the current arrangements, to take stock and take a strategic view of how the Trust should be governed in the future.

The options as set out in the report were outlined to the committee by Looqman Desai. These were to: 1) maintain the status quo; 2) appoint additional trustees alongside the Council; 3) appoint a corporate trustee; 4) establish a new corporate charity to take on ownership and control of Barham Park; and 5) outright transfer to another charity. It was emphasised that if the committee chose to maintain the status quo, no further action would be required. Alternatively, the committee could recommend one or more of the other options to Cabinet for further consideration and consultation.

Looqman Desai explained that the Council held Barham Park on a charitable trust to preserve the land for public recreation. The Council was the sole corporate trustee of the charity. The exercise of the administration, operational and management function of the Trust was an executive function of the council. Until 2012, the function had been discharged by the Cabinet itself. Since then, at Member level, it had been discharged by the Barham Park Trust Committee. In September 2016, the committee revised the previous officer delegation scheme by delegating the day to day functions of the Trust to the Operational Director, Environmental Services.

The committee further heard from Looqman Desai that there was no mutually exclusive division between things the Council did pursuant to its statutory functions, and things that it did as a charity trustee. In that respect Trust activities were not ring-fenced. However, the Trust assets and funds could only be used for its charitable purpose and were kept separate from those of the Council. 

With reference to the report considered by the committee at its meeting on 12 April 2017 on the state of finances of the Trust, Looqman Desai highlighted that the Trust had significant reserves (generated from the sale of two properties within the park and other sources of income) which earned interest at a rate higher than that received by the Council. It was important to acknowledge, however,  that there were a number of items of expenditure in respect of Barham Park, such as maintenance and plantings costs, tree related insurance claims and professional officer time, that were not re-charged to the Trust. The Trust therefore  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5