The Roof Gardens – Residents Meeting 13.06.24
Attendees – 2 persons from KQRA
The Roof Gardens – Sue Walter (SW), Robert Seals (RS), Eilish Quinn (EQ), Dominic Munroe (DM)
Attendees KRSA: Alex Stirling (AS), Peder Olsen (PO) Alex Stirling asked to have attendees added
to minutes plus addition of notes to the minutes. These additions are in red. Additional
annotations from the Roof Gardens are in blue.
Agenda
1 – Welcome/introductions
2- Update on opening timeline
3- Operational Management – SIA Kensington Square Patrol Route
5 – AOB 6 – Next meeting 4th July
Welcome/Introductions made by SW
- RS – Director of Commercial Operations – Overseeing the implementation of the
Operational Plan. - DM supporting RS for opening of Club including the Operational Plan.
- EQ– Strategic Projects Manager – Building the Charitable Foundation which will look to
employment/education of those struggling to find work in local area and second aspect
around urban planting working with Kensington and wider community.
Update on Opening Timeline - W/c 10th June has seen two test events and limited friends and family bookings.
- W/c 17th will see further F&F bookings and two further test events (19th & 21st), with F&F
running up until the 4th July which is obicial opening day.
Operational Management & Dispersal Plan (OMPD) - RS advised he has now become Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS) and has been
building structure, procedures and training around the OMDP and Premises License. - An internal Head of Security Daniel Gheorghiu (DG) has been employed to oversee the
security team including the third-party company (Halo Security) and their SIA guards
that will be used at the club. - SW advised she would bring DG and Halsho Draey (HG) to the next residents meeting.
- Training continues and covers Premises Licence conditions and the OMDP including
trabic/residents/license for both inside and outside of the building. - Work to be done with the 99 Kensington High St building security and our neighbours at
the Daily Mail and Equinox due to the crossovers TRGs have with them (Equinox closes
at 10pm of an evening Mon-Thurs, 9pm Fri, 7pm Sat-Sun and the Daily Mail have 200
members of stab working overnight). - Duty Manager phone has now been set up to cover operating hours and a dedicated
email address setup both of which are available on the portal but will also be distributed
around residents and relevant parties. - RS has been working with Ian Sharland (noise/vibration control specialist) in regard to
the sound levels and getting set across the 4 monitor points on the roof. - Testing has been carried out for the last two weeks and will continue as more furniture
comes into the building and will be ongoing process as building becomes live. - Once levels are set then Keith Mehaffy (KM) will be invited in. AS observations that a
regular security team will improve the levels (RS agreed and said this was stipulated in
licence hearing reports).
- RS asked residents to be patient while systems and people find feet. KSRA raised a point
that a major challenge at start will be noise from trabic and revving of cars. RS agreed with
the point with intent being to get cars to turn higher up Derry Street to prevent flow going
close to square and will be an education and culture piece with security and members alike.
AS commented that significant disturbance had already been caused by taxis and high
performance cars driving down Derry street, getting stuck at the cul-de-sac end and having
to do U-Turns – creating noise from idling and revving engines, hooting. Therefore, security
team, needed to either prevent cars from entering Derry Street from High Street Kensington,
or getting them to turn sooner”. The Roof Gardens would like to comment that they do not
accept that the mentioned traffic has been caused directly by the club in the soft opening
period but do agree the road traffic from various business and random parking on Derry
Street can happen as AS has laid out.
- SW advised that RS has been looking into geo fencing of the pickup point for Uber being
up on Kensington High Street late of an evening (9pm) and needing to manage the knock
on to other residents of the building as this will change position for everyone. Once Uber
confirm, RS will then look to do likewise for Bolt etc. Future possibility of looking at
repositioning of taxi rank at Japan House if this would be useful. - RS advised that the number plate recognition technology is in final build, but GDPR data
hold aspect is holding up the implementation. Once in operation members would have
to provide the number plate (stipulated in Membership T&C’s) for their car if they intend
to drive to the Club, this will also be reiterated on every member induction. Main aim is
to deter use of private cars and driving to/from the venue. AS requested that the number
plate technology system, parking control process be implemented before the opening of
the club, and that further update be provided to KSRA and RBKC - Residents surprised to hear this as at license hearings it had been advised that every
member would have to provide the license plate of their car as a pre-condition and part
of the membership application process. SW/RS advised they would take this away and
come back in response. AS / PD commented that Kensington Roof Gardens seemed to
be back peddling on the conditions and commitments relating to parking, to ensure that
all vehicle number plate details were captured at the point of membership application.
Which has not been done and is a core part of the Operations Plan. The Roof Gardens
would like to note that the member rules do require the members to provide their private
car information, where proposed to be used to travel to the Club. This information will be used to implement the parking monitoring strategy described in paragraphs 6.32 to 6.34 of the Operational Management and Dispersal Plan. Roof Gardens has been taking car number plates of members and guests who have driven to the club, but this number is low as public transport is encouraged. As discussed in the meeting, the App and Website are having changes built so it will be included in a standalone box in the initial member application form, flagging the point up and taking registration details on application.
SIA Kensington Square Patrol Route
- RS shared the hard copy of the route which has 4 guards on it (base license required 3).
1 guard based at main entrance, 1 top end of Derry Street, 1 at the bottom of Derry
Street looking up, 1 at cut looking back into the square. Patrols will be carried out around
the route, and this will be logged via the QR codes set at the points marked on the route.
AS highlighted that there is a lot of car crime in the square specifically around break ins,
this intel was helpful to RS/SW and hopefully the patrols and guards will act as a further
deterrent to this with further support via the body cam of guards that can track footage.
AS suggested repositioning of guards and subsequent SIA plan outlining positions and
roles, RS will take information from meeting and build into SIA. AL highlighted noise
issues around guards talking and radios, RS advised that radios have been silenced and
will reiterate the guards talking with the relevant personnel. All parties agreed that
constant and open dialogue/intel will be key going forward and one of the main benefits
of the meetings. AS commented “The security team, are not yet sure of where to stand,
what their role is, and therefore needed further training particularly around managing
traffic on Derry Street, preventing members/ guests cars from parking in the square and
preventing patrons leaving the club walking in to the square, otherwise they will be
ineffectual”. The Roof Gardens would like to note that the SIA team are trained and are
well versed in the requirements of the Operational Management and Dispersal Plan.
AOB
KQRA wanted to discuss certain points on Operational Management Plan
- 2.5 – Will Residents’ complaints be included in the log included? RS advised that
resident complaints would be included in the log. Complaints relevant to residents will
be reviewed and discussed in the monthly meeting, however due to compliance/GDPR
not all complaints may not be discussed. The Operational Management and Dispersal
Plan will be distributed again (both clean and track) so that everyone is on the same
page. - 3.6 What is the approach to termination of Membership? RS depends on severity and
each case looked at on merits. SW will hold Members in high standard of treatment of
members, stab and residential area alike with a zero tolerance on bad behaviour. The
T&C’s we have are done with intention to have a harmonious Club and prevent issues
with license. SW will have T&C’s to be shared again with relevant parties and is mindful
and appreciates historic issues around behaviour, but this is something that we won’t
allow. - 6.28 ‘In practise and possible’ – feels vague and a watering down of what the clause
should be? RS explained Halo/Security will be as firm as possible but physically
stopping is dibicult to write down legally. SW advised that whilst the Operational
Management Plan is a working document that can be tweaked accordingly based of
open communication, we are not looking to reopen the document consultation process.
SW asked AS to send all questions through, and they can be looked into by the wider
team. - 6.3 – ‘To you intend to have regular queues outside the building? RS advised that
standard business would be queuing inside, and so street aspect wouldn’t be a regular
occurrence. From time to time for event we’ll have larger events that may need to queue
outside however we’ll look to have staggered starts for any such events to prevent
elongated bottlenecks/queues. - All parties agreed the importance of working closely together and to have a constructive
relationship as we move towards opening and thereafter. SW very much appreciates the
time and effort community have put into this to date and the local information and intel
will be hugely beneficial.
Next meeting is pencilled for 4th July, but SW/RS will confirm asap
Meeting arranged for 5pm Tuesday 9th July at Roof Garden Offices.