Agenda item

Report of the City Surveyor.

The Committee received a report of the City Surveyor containing details of 1 public escalator/lift that was out of service less than 95% of the time.

A Member commented that he thought that the Committee had previously asked for details of any lift in the City of London estate that was out of service for any period of time. The Chairman stated that he shared this recollection.

The City Surveyor clarified that all previous reports had only detailed those out of service for 95% of the time or less to save Members being bogged down with information on lifts that may have been out of service for just an hour or so.

A Member commented that he was of the view that, as the aim was for 100% of the lifts to be in service 100% of the time, all lift failures should be reported to Committee.

Another Member disagreed with this approach suggesting that it would be impossible to achieve 100% at all times given that these were mechanical objects that could fail at any point in time and without warning.

Another Member agreed with the reporting of all failures given that even minor outages could have maximum impact for those with mobility issues.

The Chairman put the matter to the vote with votes cast as follows:

-       Those wanting all lift/escalator failures reported to Committee – 6 VOTES;

-       Those wanting to maintain the status quo with reports continuing to detail those lifts/escalators out of service for 95% of the time or less – 13 VOTES

It was therefore agreed that the City Surveyor would continue to report to Committee on the same basis.

In response to further questions, the City Surveyor reported that a trial project providing the public with real time information on any lift outages was set to be trialled at Blackfriars Bridge. If the project proved successful a report would be brought back to this Committee so that it could be rolled out further. There were also plans to update the public on lift outages via social media on the Department of Built Environment’s dedicated Twitter account. This was still, therefore, very much a work in progress.

RECEIVED.