Agenda item

Report of the City Surveyor

The Committee received a report of the City Surveyor providing an update in respect of the status of public lifts and escalators in the City. The City Surveyor advised the Committee that since the publication of the report, the lift on Pilgrim Street was back in service, and all the lifts on the list were currently working.

A Member pointed out that it had previously been suggested that a system be developed to alert people to lift faults in advance, so that they found out before travelling to use the lift, and asked if there had been any progress in developing this system. The City Surveyor responded that details of faults were posted on the Corporation website. A provider for a real-time information service had been sourced and officers were looking at this in detail. It was hoped that this could be progressed in the next few months.

In response to a query from a Member, the City Surveyor confirmed that the Corporation was responsible for the lift at Blackfriars Bridge. The lift had frequent problems with vandalism, but more robust measures to protect it had been put in place.

Members felt that more thought about how to communicate with service users was needed as pedestrians were unlikely to look at the Corporation website for lift updates. Members suggested making more use of social media or including alerts on the Transport for London (TfL) website as part of the Journey Planner function, and asked for a report to be brought back to Committee.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.