Agenda item

Reports of the City Surveyor.

The Committee received two reports of the City Surveyor containing details of those public escalators/lifts that were operational for less than 95% of the time.

Members regretfully noted that these were some of the worst statistics that had been reported in many years, particularly in relation to the Millennium Inclinator. The Chair spoke to report that he understood that a group of school children had also recently been stuck in the Inclinator.

The City Surveyor reported that the new contractor had now taken over the maintenance of the Inclinator and had reported no issues to date. The new contractor had specialist knowledge of the Inclinator and was willing to take on the maintenance contract as it stood.

A Member questioned if there had been any follow up in terms of the resident who had recently been stuck in the London Wall lift, as discussed at the last meeting. The City Surveyor reported that the issue here had been that the engineer had been unable to access the lift control room at 1 London Wall as it was not City of London property and was therefore deemed a security issue. Members were informed that a new procedure was now in place that would ensure that our engineers had access to the control room at all times although this had not yet had to be tested. The City Surveyor took the opportunity to remind users of this lift that they should follow the signs in the lift itself and use the emergency call point in situ should they experience any difficulties as opposed to trying to dial out on a mobile telephone.

A Member questioned whether Officers were continuing to look at the possibility of introducing a notification system for disabled visitors to the City informing them of what lifts were out of service on any given day. The City Surveyor reported that the procurement of this service was in progress and that it would be trialled, in the first instance, at Blackfriars Bridge before being rolled out.

RECEIVED.