Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 20 May 2013.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 May 2013, be approved subject to the following amendment to Item 3, paragraph 3 –

“…as their position as an ex-officio Member was officially vacant unclear until the appointing Committee had met…”

MATTERS ARISING

Item 3 – Election of Chairman- the Town Clerk informed the Committee that advice had been sought from the Comptroller and City Solicitor regarding the appointment of ex-officio Members and advised that the appointments made during the previous municipal year should still be treated as current during the interregnum, provided that the Members concerned were still eligible for appointment.

Item 8 – Pedestrian Crossing at St Paul’s (Millennium Bridge approach) – the Assistant Director informed Members that as yet, he had not met with Transport for London (TfL) regarding the option to include countdown timers at the crossing.  It was agreed that a list of those crossings which had either already or would have count down timers would be circulated to Members after the meeting.

To receive the outstanding actions list.

The list of outstanding actions was RECEIVED.

Blackfriars Bridge – Members were informed that the result of the meeting with TfL suggested they would not be progressing further with the scheme currently in place, therefore issues around safety would be addressed through a subsequent change to the design of the road layout to the north of the bridge.

Beating the Bounds – The comments of the Sub Committee had been noted by the Appeal organisers who were also promoting a new campaign ‘Resist the Twist’ which hoped to encourage motor cyclists not to rev their engines.  Members noted that work towards to the event in October 2013 was progressing well.

Closure of Jewry Street – Members were informed that work was now complete and the diversion had been removed, however issues raised previously by Members regarding the diversion had been raised with the contractor.

Ludgate Hill – the Assistant Director informed the Committee that the design work would be linked with Fleet Street and this process would take between 12 and 18 months.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of the Built Environment regarding road danger reduction in the Shoe Lane area – Stonecutter Street and Little New Street.

Members were minded not to authorise closure of the project and requested that Officers carry out a 12 month review of the casualty situation and document this fully, with remedial action as necessary.  In addition, queries were raised regarding the replacement trees in Giltspur Street, the maintenance costs and replacement if any of the trees died within their first season and also the appropriate signage tin Stonecutter Street when approaching from the west.

RESOLVED – That,

a)     closure of the project be not agreed in light of the comments made by the Committee in respect of

i)                 the need to carry out a proper 12 month review of the casualty situation and document this fully, with remedial action as necessary;

ii)                queries over the replacement trees in Giltspur Street, maintenance costs and replacement if any of the trees died within their first season; and

iii)              the appropriate signage tin Stonecutter Street when approaching from the west.

b)     an update report be brought back to the Sub-Committee at the next meeting.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of the Built Environment.  The report sought to extend the scope of the Bloomberg Place project from highway evaluation and design to include implementation of highway changes in addition to substantial environmental enhancements at the request of the developer.

A query was raised regarding the association between private land and public highway and it was confirmed that this information would be provided to the Sub Committee.

RESOLVED – That,

a)     the project scope be extended from solely evaluating highway options and design to include the evaluation, design and implementation of necessary highway improvements and desired environmental enhancements including possible introduction of trees in the public highway;

b)     the total estimated costs be increased from £250,000, the estimated cost of highway evaluation and design reported to Members in February 2012, to £3 million to include the cost of implementation as described above;

c)     a further £200,000 be approved from the £250,000 already received to progress the project to Gateway 3/4 as shown in Appendix 1;

d)     authority for any further budget adjustments for highway evaluation and design purposes be delegated to the Town Clerk in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman;

e)     the project be authorised to proceed under the project approval procedure from “Streamlined” to “Standard” as required for projects of a value exceeding £2 million; and

f)       the project be required to progress under a combined Gateway 3/4 due to lack of real options.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of the Built Environment which explored options to enhance the environment of the streets and spaces in the vicinity of the redevelopment at 5 Broadgate.

Members discussed the low tolerance figure which was a result of the options development with all key stakeholders involved.  Members were informed that the projects approval procedure did not allow for contingencies, however, if an investigation identified that additional expenditure was required, then Section 278 funding could be used.

RESOLVED – That,

a)     option 3 be approved for progression through to detailed design stage with the subsequent design and authority to start works presented at the next Gateway;

b)     a public consultation on the preferred option be carried out concurrent with the early stages of the detailed design based on the preferred option.

Consideration was given to an options appraisal report of the Director of the Built Environment which related to security infrastructure and public realm enhancements to the forecourt of the 20 Fenchurch Street development.

RESOLVED – That,

a)     The project be approved at an estimated cost of £900,000 to deliver Option 1 as funded by the developer of 20 Fenchurch Street (Canary Wharf Contractors); and

b)     City Officers be authorised to enter into a legal agreement pursuant to Section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 with the developer of 20 Fenchurch Street to secure the funding and implementation arrangements for the project as described in the report.

There were no questions.

There were three items of urgent business as follows -

Aldgate Highway Changes and Public Realm Improvements – The Town Clerk in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of both the Projects and Streets and Walkways Sub Committees had approved the following recommendations under urgency authority, Standing Order No. 41 (b) –

a)     £54,000 to introduce 4 ‘Experimental initiatives’ in the area;

b)     A sum of £584,000 to move the project to Gateway 4 to be met from –

o   £138, 368 of the Heron Tower S106 contribution;

o   £350, 000 of the Heron Tower S278(2) agreement; and

o   £95, 632 of the St Botolph Building S106 contribution.

c)     Unspent allocation be utilised to fund the project between Gateway 4 and Gateway.

Members noted that this project continued to be delivered to what was an ambitious programme with a target build commencement date of April 2014.  However, given the three unforeseen events that had arisen, urgency was granted to bring forward funding not to delay to programme.

RECEIVED.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of the Built Environment which provided further information which was requested by the Projects Sub Committee in respect of proposals to carry out further grounds for investigation in Paul’s Walk.

RECEIVED.

The Chairman was delighted to announce the ‘CIHT/Enterprise Mouchel Streets’ Award given to the City of London for the Cheapside scheme.  The judges had considered the scheme to be outstanding and addressed the balance between movement and place as well as by the use of high quality materials.

The Committee congratulated Officers on this outstanding achievement

MOTION – That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business 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.

RESOLVED: That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business 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.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of the Built Environment relative to Winchester House Security.

RECEIVED.

There were no questions.

There were no items of urgent business.