Agenda and minutes

Introductions

The Town Clerk opened the meeting by introducing herself.

A roll call of Members present was undertaken.

The Town Clerk highlighted that the meeting was being recorded as well as live streamed and would be made available on the City Corporation’s YouTube page for a period of time after the meeting had concluded. With this in mind, it was confirmed that participants in the meeting had all individually agreed and given their consent to being recorded and that all personal data would be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018. The Town Clerk highlighted that, for further information on this, viewers could contact the City Corporation using the details provided on the public webpages.

The Town Clerk also reminded Members, and any members of the public observing the meeting on-line, that this was an informal meeting and that any views reached by the Committee today would therefore have to be considered by the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection or those deputising for him after the meeting in accordance with the Court of Common Council’s COVID Approval Procedure and that they would make a formal decision having considered all relevant matters. The Town Clerk highlighted that this process reflected the current position in respect of the holding of formal Local Authority meetings and the Court of Common Council’s decision of 15^th April 2021 to continue with virtual meetings and take formal decisions through a delegation to the Town Clerk and other officers nominated by him after the informal meeting has taken place and the will of the Committee was known in open session. Details of all decisions taken under the COVID Approval Procedure would be available online via the City Corporation’s webpages.

Apologies for absence were received from Peter Dunphy, Sheriff Christopher Hayward and Alderman Bronek

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the informal meeting held virtually on 12 May 2021.

The Committee considered the public minutes of the informal meeting held virtually on 12 May 2021 and approved them as a correct record.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk concerning the Governance Review: Planning Panel Arrangements.

The Chair reminded the Committee of the context of this report which had emanated from the Lisvane recommendations which covered Panels and other matters in relation to Planning. The Chair highlighted that Planning was one area of work that had received advanced consideration over and above other matters raised by Lisvane and that this had been dealt with by the Resource Allocation Sub-Committee in February 2021 where the principle of Panels had been established and subsequently by the Policy and Resources Committee in March 2021 which had also endorsed this. Members were informed that the purpose of the paper before this Committee today was two-fold (to debate and decide upon the course of action in terms of Panels and secondly to consider the petition presented to the Court by Mr Bostock and referred to this and the Policy and Resources Committee). The Chair underlined that the views of this Committee would be fed into the Policy and Resources Committee in July 2021 when they were due to consider this same paper and eventually to the Court of Common Council in the same month. The Chair invited any contributions that members of the Committee might have on this matter and highlighted that, thereafter, he intended to ask the Committee to vote on each matter set out within paragraph 43 of the report utilising the electronic voting links issued to them by the Town Clerk prior to the meeting.

A Member spoke to underline that whilst he was named as the presenter of the petition, he was one of seven sponsors with others including the Barbican Association and the Golden Lane Residents’ Association. The Member went on to note that the report before the Committee only

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director setting out information on the number of stopping up orders and the changes to the public highway that have been approved through planning applications.

A Member commented that it was interesting to note how vigilant the Committee needed to be on these issues and therefore called for a real underlining of this aspect within the Officer report when applications which would involve a loss of public highway came forward in future. 

Another Member questioned the figures in terms of public realm created at ground level and not on rooftops which was not necessarily accessible to all. Officers responded to state that the report referenced ground floor public realm gains only. 

Another Member referenced Aldgate Square which he presumed had resulted in a loss of public highway but a very large increase in public realm and asked whether this was incorporated within this report. Officers clarified that this had not been included within the report given that it was not the subject of a planning application.

RESOLVED – That Members note the content of the report.

At this point, the Chairman sought approval from the Committee to continue the meeting beyond two hours from the appointed time for the start of the meeting, in accordance with Standing Order 40, and this was agreed.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee received a report of the Director of the Built Environment updating Members on the London Rental E-Scooter trial.

A Member questioned why the London boroughs were able to get through this process and the City were not. In terms of the delay, Officers stated that, technically, the City could have slightly compressed the statutory consultation period for the Experimental Traffic Order to meet the specified deadline but chose not to do this as it was felt vital to give statutory consultees as much time as possible to respond on this. Officers went on to report that no objections had been received through the consultation. This had delayed the process for the City by one week and, as Members were already aware, the contractual arrangement with the operators was that a launch had to occur at the start of a trial period which happened every 28 days. Consequently, the City launch would therefore now take place on 5 July 2021.

Another Member requested an update on the electric bicycle scheme that was to be rolled out by Santander/TfL. She questioned whether these would be introduced in the City and, if so, what impact Officers thought that this extension of the Santander scheme would have on these operators. The Member also asked if Officers could ensure that, when these e-scooters were promoted, any promotional material depicted users wearing helmets. Officers responded to state that they did not yet have exact details of how TfL were intending to deploy the Santander electric cycle but were assuming that these would just be incorporated with the other Santander cycles, spread amongst the various existing docking stations accordingly. Officers reported that this was the approach taken in Paris which had offered a combination of electric and non-electric, docked hire cycles for a while now.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee received a report of the Town Clerk detailing the list of Outstanding Actions.

RECEIVED.

Report of the City Surveyor.

The Committee received a public lift report of the City Surveyor for the period 27/04/2021 – 21/05/2021.

A Member noted that another lift had been out of service for a very long period of time because of the emergency phone support and remarked that this seemed to happen with some frequency. He therefore questioned whether there was an alternative way for this to be provided to avoid this problem. Officers confirmed that they were able to utilise a remote monitoring system instead and that a programme to examine costs and roll this out to all of the City’s lifts was now underway to avoid reliance on the BT line in future.

RECEIVED.

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director providing Members with a list detailing development and advertisement applications determined by the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director or those authorised under their delegated powers since the report to the last meeting.

RESOLVED - That the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director providing Members with a list detailing development applications received by the Department of the Built Environment since the report to the last meeting.

RESOLVED - That Members note the report.

Member conduct in hybrid meetings

A Member stated that, whilst he hoped that a return to in-person meetings would be possible for all in the near future, he would like an assurance from the Chair that, if virtual meetings continued, he would not, as a general rule, pass comment on the facial expressions of meeting participants following comments made by him at the last meeting of this Committee.  The Chair responded to clarify that he would challenge any participant where he felt that their behaviour was inappropriate or needed to be noted without fear of favour and clarified that he had since spoken separately with the individual concerned on this matter. The Member spoke again to request that the Chair be as tolerant/lenient as possible in this respect given that things such as facial expressions were often magnified in a virtual setting.

The Member concerned thanked the speaker for raising this point today and confirmed that she had now spoken further with the Chair on this matter. The Member reported that, during her conversation with the Chair, she had stated that she did not feel that he challenged others on the Committee for similar behaviour and had underlined that some Members found meetings intimidating due to the behaviour of other Members. The Chair had assured the Member that, going forward, he would ensure that Members were able to express their views without feeling intimidated, harassed or bullied. The Member stated that the reason she was speaking on this matter today was to thank those Members and members of the public that had contacted her to offer their support and underline that they did not think that this was acceptable, noting that they felt that she was frequently bullied, harassed and intimidated at this and other Corporation meetings. The Member added

There were no additional, urgent items of business for consideration.

MOTION – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

                        Item No(s)                                                      Paragraph No(s)

                             14                                                                           3

                              15                                                                    3, 5 & 7

                              16                                                                        3 & 7

                           17-18                                                                       -

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the Director of the Built Environment setting out progress made to date in tendering for the Transportation and Public Realm Consultancy Framework for professional services.

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee received a report of the Director of the Built Environment informing Members of arrears of invoiced income as at 31^st March 2021.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee received a report of the Town Clerk advising Members of action taken by the Town Clerk since the last meeting of the Committee, in consultation with the Chair and Deputy Chairman, in accordance with Standing Orders Nos 41(a) and (b).

Questions regarding various follow-up matters to the Committee’s sustainability training session were raised.

There was no additional, urgent business for consideration.