Agenda item

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of the Built Environment regarding the discontinuance of the Broad Street House City Walkway, the 99 Bishopsgate City Walkway and the 55 Bishopsgate City Walkway.

An additional paper detailing the land ownership of the walkways was tabled.

The Committee were informed that the walkways had previously been closed temporarily due to a structural installation and Members were now asked to consider their permanent discontinuance. Officers reported that the building owners were supportive of this approach as they had recently reported problems with rough sleepers and litter in these areas. Officers added that they had also almost reached the point of legal agreement on allowing for safe fire egress from all buildings that currently rely on the walkways.

A Member sought clarity on the proposed usage of the walkways by property owners going forward. He also questioned whether the bridge depicted in yellow on the tabled sheet would be removed should the decision to discontinue the walkways be taken. Officers clarified that the walkways would continue to be available to property owners for fire egress and that the bridge would remain in place so that City of London Corporation staff could continue to access the area for maintenance. The area would simply be closed in terms of public access. Having said that, the long term ambition would be to remove the structure and proposals around this would be brought back to this Committee in dues course.

RESOLVED – That, the Committee:

1.    Resolve to discontinue the Broad Street House City Walkway (CW45), the 99 Bishopsgate City Walkway (CW6) and the 55 Bishopsgate City Walkway (CW70 on a date to be determined in the terms of the resolution set out at Appendix 1 to this report; and

2.    Delegate authority to the Transport Planning and Development Manager to insert an appropriate date for the resolution to come into force.