Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Munsur Ali, Peter Dunphy, Sophie Fernandes, Christopher Hill, Andrew Mayer and Judith Pleasance.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 22 October 2019.

The Committee considered and approved the public minutes of the meeting held on 22 October 2019.

MATTERS ARISING

Climate Action Briefing Implementation (page 6) – A Member noted that the Committee were still yet to receive the City Corporation’s definition of a zero-carbon building. He asked that this matter be added to the list of Outstanding Actions until the information had been circulated.

The Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy Monitoring Report (page 8) – A Member questioned what progress had been made in terms of affordable housing contributions and bringing this forward urgently, as a separate Supplementary Planning Document. The Chief Planning Officer and Development Director reported that this was being actively worked on and that an update would be provided at the next meeting of this Committee. The Chair agreed that this should be fast tracked given that Members had pushed for this for a number of years now and that the current numbers were clearly very wrong.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee received a report of the Town Clerk detailing outstanding actions from their last meeting.

Members discussed the length of the current document and the level of detail it contained for each item. The majority of Members felt that the background information provided for each item was useful in terms of reflecting the history of a matter and reflecting any nuances. The Chair reiterated that items were removed from the list once they had been dealt with.

It was, however, agreed that the table of actions could be streamlined by removing the column headed ‘Officer responsible’ and adding this information below the Action title and also combining the ‘Progress Update’ and ‘To be completed/progressed’… columns.  The Town Clerk undertook to make these changes for future reports.

RECEIVED.

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director regarding demolition of the existing building and over site development to provide a 10 storey building for office use (Class B1) (24,134sq.m GIA) with retail floorspace (Class A1-A4) at ground floor (615 sq.m GIA), roof plant and two levels of partial basement.

Officers introduced the report and underlined that the site in question was heavily compromised due to nearby Crossrail infrastructure. Members were also informed that the site would require servicing on-street. The Committee were shown views of the site from various different perspectives and pictures of the existing and proposed buildings.

Officers highlighted the particular concerns raised around the design of the upper storeys of the proposed development. Officers stated that they were of the view that the proposals and proposed use of cast metal – a unique material for the City - was both contemporary and creative. Officers went on to highlight that the nearby 100 Liverpool Street building was of comparable height and that the proposed height of this development, at a location that was very much a gateway to the City was therefore justified.

Members were also informed that Historic England had expressed concern around the view of the proposed development from Liverpool Street, alongside the Great Eastern Hotel.

The Chair thanked Officers for the introduction. He invited the two Members of the Committee who had attended a site visit last week to open with any comments they might have on the application.

A Member who had attended the site visit last week stated that he was generally supportive of the application but that he would appreciate further information on the servicing of the proposed development and the effect that this was likely to have on other businesses also using Blomfield Street for

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee received a report of the Director of the Department of the Built Environment updating on progress with delivering the City of London Transport Strategy. The report covers Quarters 1 and 2 of 2019/20 (May - September 2019).

The Chair highlighted the relationship between this Committee and the Streets and Walkways Sub Committee in terms of implementing the Transport Strategy and invited the Chairman of the Sub Committee to comment further on this.  The Chairman of the Streets and Walkways Sub Committee reported that a great deal of progress had been made in terms of implementing the Transport Strategy in recent months including further improvements at Ludgate Circus and the successful Lunchtime Streets initiative. He added that the minutes of the Sub Committee were regularly brought to this Committee for information which would allow Members to keep track on future progress here. He added that he felt a great sense of momentum to progress these matters now and a great deal of positive energy behind this. He highlighted, however, that a number of matters continued to be on hold due to the ongoing fundamental review and asked that Members seek to ensure that these projects were not unduly delayed for this reason.

A Member referred to flows coming into the City and questioned if any work had been done to look at how much more the City could reasonably manage/facilitate. He asked that Members receive an annual report looking at the bigger picture and how the Transport Strategy dovetailed with those moving around the City and the capital more generally. Officers reported that the City Corporation was working alongside TfL to improve transport links/connections into the Square Mile. They sought to provide a fuller update on this in future quarters.

Another Member congratulated Officers on moving the Strategy forward.

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director outlining the issues involved in dealing with short-term lets in residential premises and a procedure note outlining the enforcement process.

A Member noted that ‘Air B ‘n’ B’ had, in theory, introduced a policy where residences could not be let for more than 90 days, however, a second listing of a property seemed to effectively overcome this restriction. He questioned whether the City Corporation had discussed the issue with major letting companies and requested information on/access to their registered properties in the City.

Another Member stated that this was clearly a big issue that would, ideally, require a pan-London approach. He added that the organisation should therefore be working alongside others to press for primary legislation on this. He agreed that the issue was easier to address if information on all short-terms lets was accessible and suggested that full disclosure should be a requirement for operation going forward.

Another Member suggested that the City Corporation should distribute information alongside future council tax bills to outline their position on this important matter.

The Chair agreed that the organisation should lobby on this matter and also continue to actively tackle the problem. He added that other boroughs had teams of people working consistently on this matter.

Officers informed the Committee that a meeting with adjoining boroughs at which London Councils would present was taking place to discuss this next week. They undertook to update Members further following this meeting.

RECEIVED.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee received a report of the Director of the Built Environment setting out the progress made during Q2 of the 2019/20 Departmental Business Plan.

A Member commented that, financial information aside, the report did not offer any real sense, strategically, of progress made against specific objectives for Quarter 3. Officers stated that the approach to feeding back to Committee’s was very much a work in progress and thanked Members for their input which would be taken on board for future updates.

A Member referred to the projected overspend and the three reasons offered for this. He questioned how much of the overspend was attributable to incomplete timesheets and what the difference between the first and the third reasons were. A second Member noted that the budget was currently overspent by £345k but that a £357k better than budget position was forecast for 2019/20. He questioned whether this was attributable to not recruiting to staff vacancies and, if so, whether this was a false economy that would lead to standards slipping. Officers clarified that recruitment in the department had not ceased but that selective recruitment was being undertaken and existing staff were also being given opportunities to take on new skills. In response to further questions around stress, Members were assured that the Department had stress management policies in place and that these matters were regularly discussed with staff at 1:1 meetings with their line managers.

The Chamberlain clarified that the majority of costs did relate to staffing. With regard to incomplete timesheets, Members were informed that there had been some delays towards the end of September 2019 around this. He added that there were agreed staffing budgets to charge to Capital Works but that other staff did not pick up costs on non-Capital projects

A Member questioned what a

Report of the City Surveyor.

The Committee received a report of the City Surveyor containing details of 2 public escalators/lifts that were in service for less than 95% of the time.

In response to a question, the City Surveyor confirmed that the Blackfriars Bridge lift was still out of service to date. It was expected to return to service by the end of this week.

RECEIVED.

Report of the Head of Corporate Strategy and Performance.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Corporate Strategy and Performance relative to the City of London Corporation’s DRAFT Sport and Physical Activity Strategy for 2020-25.

A Member commented that there are not many City-specific assets and suggested that a  soft surface strip could be incorporated on pavements for runners.  He commented that this had been done successfully in other countries such as Abu Dhabi and paid for by corporations. The strip could also still be walked across by pedestrians and used for self-promotion. The Member added running was an inexpensive, inclusive sport and something which should be endorsed from a public health point of view.  It was felt that this idea was something that could be explored further through the Streets and Walkways Sub-Committee. Officers responded that there was nothing in the strategy that would prevent this idea being explored, but that ultimately it would come down to Members deciding if it was a priority and resources, as well as ensuring that it supported the Transport Strategy. 

A Member stated that he was nervous about the idea of creating a new Working Party around the Strategy, and said that if it were to proceed, it should have a defined term of no more than two years.  The Town Clerk reminded the Committee that a Governance Review was now underway and that all such bodies would need to be considered in the round as part of this. 

Another Member welcomed the progress made on the new draft of the strategy but noted that it contained references to continued investment and therefore asked that the organisation’s total spend on sport was detailed. Whilst he acknowledged that this information might be difficult to gather from across the organisation, he felt that, without this information, it would not be possible to

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director detailing development and advertisement applications determined by the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director or those so authorised under their delegated powers since the report to the last meeting.

RECEIVED.  

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director detailing development applications received by the Department of the Built Environment since the report to the last meeting.

RECEIVED.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee received a report of the Director of the Built Environment updating Members on the potential implications of Brexit for the Department of the Built Environment.

The Chair highlighted that identical reports had now been submitted to the Committee on this matter for some months now. With this in mind it was put to Members, and agreed unanimously, that the report now be removed from future agendas until such time as further updates were necessary.

RESOLVED – That Members note this report and that further update reports will be made to subsequent meetings of the Committee as appropriate.

There were no questions.

There were no additional, urgent items of business for consideration.

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 the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

            Item No.                                                          Paragraph No(s).

                17                                                                            3

              18-19                                                                         -

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 22 October 2019.

The Committee considered and approved the non-public minutes of the last meeting held on 22 October 2019.

A Member raised a question on Crossrail progress.

Date of next Meeting

The Chair reminded Members that the next meeting of this Committee was scheduled to take place on Thursday 12 December 2019 and that this meeting would proceed  in spite the General Election now being held that same day.