Ten-year vision for Ally Pally revealed

Charitable trust responsible for Alexandra Palace wants to put sustainability at heart of venue’s future, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Sustainability is set to be at the heart of a new ten-year vision drawn up by the charitable trust that runs Alexandra Palace.

The trust’s draft vision includes goals that focus on building climate change resilience and safeguarding the “green lung for London” created by the 7.5-acre park and palace, which celebrates its 150th birthday this month.

Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust chief executive Emma Dagnes said sustainability would “inform all that we do over the next ten years”.

Emma presented an update on the draft ten-year vision to a meeting of the trust board on Wednesday. It comes after the trust achieved its 2016 vision to “become a year-round cultural destination”.

A report presented to the committee states that the trust has a responsibility to ensure Alexandra Palace “is here for generations to come”, adding: “The only way to achieve this is for Alexandra Palace and Park to work towards a sustainable future, both environmentally and financially, across all that we do.”

Further goals set out in the draft strategy focus on protecting heritage assets, restoring derelict spaces, establishing “new and exciting partnerships” and inspiring and engaging communities.

The trust has already received feedback from two committees linked to the palace. Emma said: “Overall, there was a lot of positivity about the look to the future and the fact that we were setting out the next decade rather than a year-to-year approach.

“Sustainability was brought up as always having been a challenge, so it was good to see that it was central to the vision.”

Emma said that some feedback from partners, stakeholders and community organisations had been linked to an ambition to be “off-grid” – a term referring to buildings that are designed to be self-sufficient rather than relying on public utilities.

She explained that this would not be realised within the ten-year period but “it will be something that we can work towards over the next ten years”.

Emma added: “That’s something we are going to talk about as an internal team around making sure we are being ambitious, but we are also being relatively sensible about what can be achieved over the next ten years.”

The chief executive said there had been some “really great insights around aligning with research and development institutes and companies, potentially becoming a collaborative hub for start-ups to provide lower rent for companies that align to the palace’s vision for the future”.

She added this was linked to an idea of becoming an “ecosystem on the hill that is self-supporting of the vision and the goals”.

Emma explained that there might be slight changes to the wording used, including the climate resilience goal “to really make sure we get the intent right”.

She added: “This is going to inform all that we do over the next ten years. Every decision that we take is going to be tested against that sustainability piece, both in terms of resilience for financial and resilience – impact on the climate.”

The board meeting was not quorate because several members were absent, meaning decisions could not be taken, but the trust hopes the draft vision and goals can be finalised shortly and rolled out during the summer.

Board members described the vision as “exciting”. Duncan Neill, from the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Association, said: “It is very exciting to develop it [the vision] and re-energise it and push it into a few different directions, and I think it is not necessarily [just] a vision – it is beyond that, so well done.”

Chair Emine Ibrahim, a Haringey councillor, said the draft vision “makes us feel really positive about the future”.

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