The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's Environment Select Committee convened to discuss several key issues, including support for the Notting Hill Carnival, a breakdown of the council's budget, and the committee's work programme for the upcoming year. The committee also observed a 72 seconds' silence to remember those who lost their lives in the Grenfell tragedy¹.

Notting Hill Carnival 2025

The committee was scheduled to scrutinise the council's arrangements for the Notting Hill Carnival² 2025, including the financial contribution and budget allocation for the event. The report pack noted that the council spends approximately £1 million on facilitating the carnival, while receiving around £300,000 in income from street trading licences, resulting in a net cost of about £700,000 per year.

Work is underway with the event organiser, strategic partners and Government to review the funding available for delivering future Carnivals.

-- Public reports pack 17th-Jun-2025 18.30 Environment Select Committee.pdf

The report pack outlined the multi-agency planning process for the carnival, involving the Licensing, Operational Safety Planning Group (LOSPG) chaired by Westminster City Council, and the GOLD Partners Group (GXG) chaired by the GLA³. It also mentioned the Strategic Partners Group (SPG), chaired by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which focuses on the strategic funding and resourcing of the carnival.

The report pack also highlighted the role of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd (NHCL) as the official event organiser, responsible for event planning and coordination. Measures NHCL manages to support public safety include stewarding, the HALO incident logging system, a control viewing tower, route entry points, and a crowd control cell in partnership with the MPS⁴.

The report pack detailed the RBKC command and control structure for the carnival, with separate Golds for Notting Hill Carnival, Terry Oliver, Director for Cleaner, Greener and Leisure Services, and Council Gold, Beau Stanford-Francis, Executive Director for Environment and Neighbourhoods. It also outlined the roles of various operational teams, including licenced premises, licenced street trading, joint street trading, noise management, unauthorised activity enforcement, event monitoring, parks, parking, control centre, and street clean up and cleansing.

The report pack also mentioned the use of Kensington Aldridge Academy as the operational base for RBKC operations and the Event Liaison Team (ELT) centre for strategic partners.

2025/26 Budget Breakdown

The committee was scheduled to review and scrutinise information on statutory and non-statutory services, as well as the budgeted net expenditure on services under the remit of the Environment Select Committee for the financial year 2025/26. The report pack broke down the budget to detail whether expenditure would be incurred in the delivery of statutory or discretionary services.

In 2025/26, the council has budgeted to spend £81.7 million on controllable costs for Environment and Neighbourhoods services, including anticipated savings on staffing costs of £1.193 million. The largest single source of income is from parking, with £59.3 million expected from fees and charges, fines, and penalty charge notices.

The report pack detailed expenditure on various services, including waste collection, street cleansing, environmental health, and planning. It also mentioned the Community and Resident-focused Environmental Services Transformation (CREST) delivery model, which includes an outsourced environmental enforcement concession contract.

The report pack highlighted the council's key priorities of building a greener and safer Kensington and Chelsea, as well as developing a thriving cultural offer in the borough. It also mentioned the Local Government Act 1999 and the Best Value Duty, which requires the council to demonstrate that it is making arrangements that are economic, efficient, and effective.

The report pack included a detailed breakdown of the 2025/26 budgets, categorised by service leads to identify where services fund the delivery of statutory services only, non-statutory services only, or a mix of both.

Select Committee Work Programme Report

The committee was scheduled to confirm their scrutiny priorities for the municipal year 2025/2026 and agree to develop a detailed work programme setting out reports and items for the scheduled meetings of the Environment Select Committee.

The report pack set out the development of the Select Committee's work programme, identifying priorities for the municipal year 2025/2026. The Select Committee has a service-based remit to scrutinise the delivery, outputs, and performance of council services, the development of departmental policy, strategy, and projects, and improved satisfaction for residents and users of services.

The report pack mentioned that the Select Committee develops an annual work programme which defines the areas of focus for members and their priorities for the municipal year. The Overview and Scrutiny work programme is developed at the beginning of the new municipal year, with inputs from members of the public, ward councillors, officers, and Lead Members.

The report pack listed the Select Committee's committed priorities, including a report on progress towards securing fairer funding for Notting Hill Carnival, statutory and discretionary services, budget scrutiny, Net Zero, and department key performance indicators (KPIs). It also mentioned the Local Plan Policies Review Working Group, chaired by Cllr Sam Mackover, which will continue in 2025/2026.

The report pack outlined the Select Committee's scheduled meetings for the new municipal year and included appendices with the Environment Select Committee priorities for 2025/2026, a longlist of potential topics, and the council's Work Programming Guidance for members.