Agenda item

Report of the City Surveyor.

The Sub-Committee received a Report of the City Surveyor concerning the City Surveyor’s Departmental risk register for Q1.

Members were concerned that risk actions were not being updated, highlighting SMT 008 (Substantial vessel strikes) as appearing to have made zero progress since March. They requested officers to ensure future iterations of this report included clear updates on progress made over the previous quarter. The City Surveyor responded that this would be actioned as a priority for the Q2 report.

A Member queried whether there was scope to reduce the risk for the Thames Tideway tunnel, given the works were winding down, another Member responded that piling work was still taking place, so officers should remain cautious for now about downgrading the risk, another Member suggested that associated works in the Blackfriars area were still some way from being resolved, this was causing consternation amongst local businesses and residents.

The City Surveyor added that the Tideway risk was uncertain. The City had experienced difficulties with this and other large-scale projects due to tenders being actively avoided by some in the industry because they were deemed too complex; the potential reputational damage of the projects being delayed or failing outweighed the value of the contract.      

Members were concerned that departmental ownership of the City Bridges risk was too muddied, City Surveyors owned the risk, whilst many actions were undertaken by the Department of the Built Environment (DBE) which provides engineering expertise. Furthermore, a Member suggested that heavy vehicle usage of the bridges should be given more attention, as the damage caused had a long-term impact on the resilience of the bridges. It would be helpful to consider any work/study in conjunction with the London Borough of Southwark.

Additionally, Members stressed that officers should ensure that as a public report, actions against terrorism had to be carefully worded or put in the non-public section of the Agenda.

Members noted that Guildhall programme delivery progress report was not delivered in Q1, the City Surveyor will prepare the Report for the September meeting of the Sub-Committee.

Finally, with regards SMT002, Members noted the risk around insufficient budgets for maintaining the portfolio, and the issue of ring fenced budgets held by certain departments. They also expressed concerns about the lack of visibility of decision making, specifically when service committees had rejected recommendations made by the City Surveyor’s department. They suggested that in future the Sub-Committee should be able to see a record of these rejections. The City Surveyor would consider how best to present this Members and report back to the Sub-Committee in September.

RESOLVED – that the Sub-Committee notes the Report.