Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Alex Bain-Stewart, Deputy Bill Fraser, Deputy Henry Jones, Oliver Lodge, Brian Mooney, Deputy Alastair Moss, Alderman William Russell, Tom Sleigh and Angela Starling.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 12 January 2016.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2016 be approved.

Matters Arising

Minute 11 - Cycle Superhighway

The Deputy Chairman reported that the briefing meeting had now taken place and a report would be coming to the next meeting.

Report of the City Planning Officer relative to development and advertisement applications dealt with under delegated authority.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director in respect of development and advertisement applications dealt with under delegated authority.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Developmental Director which provided details of valid planning applications received by the department since last meeting.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

Joint report of the Comptroller and City Solicitor and the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Comptroller and City Solicitor and the Chief Planning Officer which sought approval for the potential acquisition of land for planning purposes by agreement under section 227 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 enabling the operation of powers under Section 237 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 (“S237”) to facilitate the carrying out of the redevelopment of 120 Moorgate in close proximity to Moorgate Station where Crossrail works were currently being carried out.

Due to the need for the developers to negotiate further with the owner of 1 Finsbury Circus, the Committee agreed to defer consideration of the report until its meeting on 10 March 2016.

RESOLVED: That the application be deferred.

Report of the Remembrancer.

The Committee received a report of the Remembrancer updating on the progress of the Housing and Planning Bill.

Members noted that since the previous report of 15 December 2015, new measures of interest had been introduced, including provision to allow external organisations to process planning applications, a power for the Government to restrict section 106 agreements relating to affordable housing, and a dispute resolution procedure for section 106 negotiations.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Arcading  - A Member queried whether or not there was a policy for encouraging developers to include shopping arcades in their planning applications in order to make better use of walkways. The Director of the Built Environment advised that the local plan did not currently include a specific policy on arcades but could do so in future as part of the Local Plan review if members wished.  Meanwhile developers could already be encouraged to provide shopping arcades in appropriate circumstances. 

The Member further questioned whether the inclusion of such a policy in the local plan was the best way forward and asked if it could be done by a resolution of the Committee instead.

The Chairman advised the Member to seek the advice of the Town Clerk to pursue that course of action.

Contact Centre – A Member reported that he had recently tried to report the blocking of a pedestrian walkway by a developer’s skip, but Contact Centre staff were unable to assist and were also unaware of the role of ‘Members’. The Member further reported that ringing the planning department directly had resulted in a similar response.

Both the Chief Planning Officer and the Town Clerk agreed to look into this and report back to the Committee.

At the request of the Chairman the Chief Planning Officer reported the outcome of the Farringdon East public inquiry and agreed to circulate this to the Committee.

At the request of the Chairman the Director of Transportation and Public Realm circulated photos of the new Riney construction vehicle selected to underline the Corporation’s commitment to reducing accidents involving vulnerable road users. The Chairman also asked that a link to the feature on this in ‘Transport Engineer’ be circulated to the Committee.

The Chairman reported that a visit had now been arranged for Committee Members to view the “Streets Ahead” exhibition sponsored by New London Architecture (NLA) and Transport for London (TfL). The visit would take place on Wednesday 17 February and all Members would receive more detailed information on this after the meeting.

MOTION – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2016.

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2016 were approved.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered and approved the report of the Director of the Built Environment regarding the London Highways Alliance Contract for Highway works.

Noted.

There were no items of urgent business.