Agenda and minutes

Venue: Livery Hall - Guildhall

Contact: Gemma Stokley
tel. no.: 020 7332 3414  Email: gemma.stokley@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Introductions

The Town Clerk opened the meeting by introducing herself and stating that the Committee was quorate.

 

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 Chair then introduced himself and welcomed all those in attendance and viewing the meeting via YouTube.

 

Apologies for absence were received from Oliver Sells QC (Deputy Chairman), Alderman Robert Hughes-Penney and Oliver Lodge.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

2.

Members' Declarations under the Code of Conduct in respect of items on the agenda

Minutes:

Susan Pearson declared an interest in a Motion that was to be proposed at Item 16 (Any Other Business) and stated that she would not therefore be participating in this item.

 

Sheriff Christopher Hayward declared an interest in agenda Item 4 as a member of the Capital Buildings Committee and stated that he would not therefore be speaking or voting on this matter.

 

Alderman Sir David Wootton declared an interest in agenda Item 4 as a member of the Capital Buildings Committee and stated that he would not therefore be speaking or voting on this matter.

 

Deputy Keith Bottomley declared an interest in agenda Item 4 as a member of both the Police Authority Board and the Capital Buildings Committee and stated that he would not therefore be speaking or voting on this matter.

 

Douglas Barrow declared an interest in agenda Item 4 as a member of both the Police Authority Board and the Capital Buildings Committee and stated that he would not therefore be speaking or voting on this matter.

 

Deputy Jamie Ingham Clark declared an interest in agenda Item 4 as an ex-officio member of the Capital Buildings Committee and stated that he would not therefore be speaking or voting on this matter.

 

Peter Bennett declared an interest in agenda Item 4 as a member of the Capital Buildings Committee and stated that he would not therefore be speaking or voting on this matter.

 

 

 

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 223 KB

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held virtually on 9 March 2021.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 3.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the public minutes and summary of the meeting held virtually on 9th March 2021 and approved them as a correct record.

 

MATTERS ARISING

Daylight/Sunlight – Alternative Guidelines (page 11) – A Member highlighted that, as the minutes record, he had first raised the use of radiance studies as the most effective way for this committee to assess the loss of daylight and sunlight two years ago. He reminded Members that he had raised it once again at the last meeting and asked that Officers undertake that when an application is received which entails a loss of daylight or sunlight to a neighbouring property, the developer be asked to provide radiance studies to assist this Committee in assessing the loss and to seek access to an affected neighbouring property to obtain precise data for this purpose, only relying upon reasonable assumptions should such access be denied. He had also suggested that, if a developer failed to provide these studies, Members should draw an adverse inference from this omission. Officers had undertaken to provide a response to that suggestion at this meeting and the Member therefore pressed for this undertaking to be given to the Committee. Officers responded to state that they had been waiting to see if BRE were going to update their national guidance before reporting back to this Committee with any further suggestions however, it was reported that there was still no definitive timeline from BRE on this. With this in mind, Officers stated that they could nevertheless progress a further report to bring back to Committee responding to specific queries and providing a more general update on daylight/sunlight issues. In the meantime, Officers reassured Members that they would continue to work with applicants on providing radiance assessments wherever necessary.

 

The Member responded to clarify

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Establishment of a Special Sub-committee pdf icon PDF 151 KB

Joint report of the Town Clerk, the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director and the Comptroller and City Solicitor.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 4.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a joint report of the Town Clerk, the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director and the Comptroller and City Solicitor concerning the establishment of a special sub-committee to consider a forthcoming planning application by the City of London Corporation involving a significant area of public highway and therefore engaging the restrictions in Regulation 10 of the Town and Country Planning General Regulations 1992 by reason of the Committee’s responsibility for public highway.

 

The Town Clerk reminded the meeting that those Members who had declared relevant interests in this item at agenda Item 2 would not be able to participate by either speaking or voting.

 

A Member spoke to state that she understood that the site in question was owned by the City of London (City Fund - freehold and leasehold) and noted that, although the Property Investment Board was a non local authority committee, its role was to manage the organisation’s property investment portfolio and to encourage development in the City of London. She therefore questioned whether the City’s management of the site and members of the Property Investment Board who managed its investments and also sat on this Committee also created a conflict of interests, what the public perception of this might be and whether this could lead to challenge further down the line.

 

Another Member commented that one of the headlines of the Lisvane Governance Review was that the City Corporation already has too many Committees, Sub-Committees, Consultative bodies etc. He suggested that it therefore seemed counter intuitive that Members were being encouraged to recommend yet another Sub-Committee and, further down the line, another four Sub-Committees in the form of Planning Panels – a proposal set to be considered by the Court of Common Council in the coming months. The Member stated that he

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Barbican and Golden Lane Conservation Area Character Summary and Management Strategy - draft Supplementary Planning Document pdf icon PDF 131 KB

Report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 5.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director in relation to the draft Barbican and Golden Lane Conservation Area Character Summary and Management Strategy.

 

The Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director introduced the item by reminding the Committee that they had designated the Conservation Area in October 2018 and agreed the boundary. He added that local authorities were statutorily obliged to publish proposals for the preservation and enhancement of conservation areas. He reported that this area already had the very highest level of protection in these estates - most of which were listed (Grade 2 and 2*) and, as such, were subject to listed building management guidelines as referenced in the documents. They were also designated landscapes and scheduled ancient monuments. Ultimately, it was intended that this document be adopted as a supplementary planning document and would therefore be a material consideration in the assessment of any proposals affecting the Conservation Area.

 

The Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director reported that, in line with protocol, three Barbican Committees (the Barbican Estate Residents Consultation Committee in November 2020, the Barbican Residential Committee in December 2020 and the Barbican Centre Board last week) had already considered the draft document ahead of this meeting and feedback from these committees had been received and collated into the draft SPD presented today.

 

As an overview, it was reported that the structure of the document was fairly clear in that it provided an understanding of the significance of the Conservation Area by analysing principal characteristics and set out proposals for the preservation and enhancement of the special architectural and historic interest of the Conservation Area. It was now recommended that the Committee agree that the document be issued for a 6-week period of public consultation.

 

A Member noted

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Short stay cycle parking in the City of London pdf icon PDF 158 KB

Report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 6.

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director setting out proposals to increase the number of short stay cycle parking spaces in the City of London to be funded by future developments which do not meet the London Plan standards.

 

A Member thanked Officers for collating this report and stated that she understood the tone of it but highlighted that the London Plan requirements were a minimum and the reality was that the City had met less than 50% of these. She felt that this ought to be readily acknowledged within the report. She added that she was grateful to see solutions broadly set out towards the end of the report and asked whether, bearing in mind that the long stay cycle provision was only marginally above the required standards and clearly did not address the City cultural offering and use outside of office hours, Members could have an update on the proposed solutions in 2-3 months’ time when people would be steadily returning to the City.

 

Another Member commented that she was a cyclist who used short stay cycle spaces and stated that she found this report quite depressing and was disappointed that this Committee had allowed this deficit to happen. She was pleased to see that there was now a proposal to ask developers to make a financial contribution to address this deficit but she stressed that it was vital that spaces were provided where they were needed and not like those recently installed in Golden Lane because there was space to accommodate these but where they were not really required. The Member questioned whether the Committee could be provided with a map indicating where spaces were and where they were most required. She added that she was also concerned that the

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Biodiversity Action Plan Update pdf icon PDF 275 KB

Report of the Director of Open Spaces.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 7.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Open Spaces setting out the background and production of the Draft Biodiversity Action Plan (2021-26) (BAP).

 

A Member commented that this plan was very much needed at a time when a biodiversity crisis was happening but added that she was surprised to see no reference to this crisis within the document. Officers responded by stating that some of the legislation that laid down why an Action Plan was necessary referred back to the Rio conference and the biodiversity crisis but accepted that this could also usefully be referenced within a future draft of the document itself prior to releasing it for consultation.

 

RESOLVED - That Members of the Planning and Transportation Committee recommend for onward approval to the Open Spaces and City Gardens Committee, the draft Biodiversity Action Plan 2021/2026, subject to the incorporation of reference to the biodiversity crisis.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Department of the Built Environment Risk Management - Quarterly Report pdf icon PDF 151 KB

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 8.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a quarterly update report of the Director of Built Environment detailing risks managed by the Department of the Built Environment that fall within the remit of the Planning and Transportation Committee.

 

A Member referred to the two red risks noted (the All Change at Bank public consultation and recommendations for on-street measures to enable the safe return of the City’s workforce and support COVID-19 recovery to come to this Committee in April). She questioned whether there was any risk of confusion when responses to the all Change at Bank public consultation were received as she confessed that she had looked at the consultation and had found it quite difficult to understand which temporary measures may or may not be in place as this came into place. She added that she had written separately to Officers on this point. She understood that the consultation was on the basis that temporary measures around COVID would be removed and she sought assurances that Officers had now made this abundantly clear as part of the consultation. Officers reported that the Bank consultation was now live and was going out in parallel with a review of the COVID on-street measures which had been in place for a while now. Some of these measures would be retained whilst others would not and a report on this would be submitted to the next meeting of this Committee. Officers did, however, reassure Members that both sets of works were being managed by the same team so that any potential overlap/conflict would be part of the assessment between what could be accommodated at Bank and in terms of any other measures that would be delivered. It was added that the key message here was that Bank still remained a priority location for this Committee and any

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Outstanding Actions pdf icon PDF 139 KB

Report of the Town Clerk.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee noted a report of the Town Clerk regarding the outstanding actions of the Committee.

 

Member Training

The Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director reported that it was envisaged that Whole Life Carbon Training would be provided to the Committee in June 2021.

 

RESOLVED - That Members note the report.

 

 

 

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Public Lift Report pdf icon PDF 175 KB

Report of the City Surveyor.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

Minutes:

The Committee received a public lift report of the City Surveyor for the period 20/02/2021 – 12/03/2021.

 

A Member raised a question relating to the Millennium Inclinator stating that he could recall from prior service on this Committee that a lot of money had been spent, firstly on repairing the old Millennium Inclinator and secondly on installing a new Inclinator in time for the 2012 Olympics. He noted from this report that the Inclinator seemed to only be operational for 90% of the time and questioned when this matter would finally be resolved. Officers recognised that there were ongoing issues with the Inclinator and that this would eventually be replaced with a normal, vertical lift as part of the Millennium House development. It was expected that this would happen at some stage this year and discussions were ongoing with the developer around this.

 

Another Member raised a question relating to the escalator on London Wall noting that the public seemed to vandalise this by turning it off and asked if Officers had any proposed solutions to this problem. Officers clarified that it was an emergency stop button that was being activated and that this had to be readily accessible should there be a problem on the escalator. However, they undertook to look again at this and see if a workable solution could be found. The Member questioned whether a camera could be installed here to deter any future vandalism. Officers undertook to look at this and the remote monitoring of the site.

 

Another Member commented that emergency stop buttons were in place in lots of locations and that there were very hefty fines attached to activating some of these in non-emergency situations. He questioned whether the City had any powers to fine those who used the buttons improperly. Officers undertook

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

DELEGATED DECISIONS OF THE CHIEF PLANNING OFFICER AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR pdf icon PDF 96 KB

Report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 11.

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director providing Members with a list detailing development and advertisement applications determined by the Interim 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.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

12.

VALID PLANNING APPLICATIONS RECEIVED BY DEPARTMENT OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT pdf icon PDF 26 KB

Report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 12.

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Interim 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.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

13.

RESOLUTION OF THE HEALTH AND WELLBEING BOARD RE: HEALTH IMPACT ASSESSMENT GUIDANCE NOTE pdf icon PDF 73 KB

Resolution of the Health and Wellbeing Board (19 February 2021).

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 13.

Minutes:

The Committee noted the resolution of the Health and Wellbeing Board on 19 February 2021 regarding the Health Impact Assessment Guidance Note.

 

RESOLVED - That Members note the resolution.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

14.

STREETS AND WALKWAYS SUB-COMMITTEE - PUBLIC MINUTES pdf icon PDF 224 KB

To receive the draft public minutes of the Streets and Walkways Sub-Committee meeting held virtually on 18 February 2021.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 14.

Minutes:

The Committee received the draft public minutes of the Streets and Walkways sub-committee meeting held on 18 February 2021.

 

RESOLVED - That Members note the draft minutes.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

15.

Questions on matters relating to the work of the committee

Minutes:

There were no questions.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

16.

Any other Business that the Chairman considers urgent

Minutes:

COLPAI Development - Motion

A Member commented that, as the Committee were already aware, he wished to propose a motion. He clarified that he had already circulated an email to all members of the Committee on this matter alongside some relevant background.

 

MOTION -  That application 20/00748 for the discharge of Conditions 43 and 46 relating to the delivery and servicing plan for the school, and application 20/00747 for the discharge of Condition 44 relating to the delivery and servicing plan for the residential / commercial part of the project, both be determined by this Committee instead of under delegated authority, as the contentious nature of these applications makes it appropriate for them to be determined by elected members.

 

By way of background, the Member highlighted that residents of Golden Lane Estate who were his constituents were concerned that the effect of these applications if approved would be that the large refuse bins for the COLPAI development would be placed for an indeterminate time awaiting collection directly next to the entrance of a residential block where they would be unsightly and may cause smells and attract vermin and fly-tipping. Secondly, to collect this refuse, lorries would need to manoeuvre in a cul-de-sac which would be unsafe for road users and pedestrians and would block access to the estate for all vehicles including emergency vehicles. The Member encouraged others to visit the site for themselves to see the potential issues. Finally, it was noted that residents were concerned that similar arrangements would exist for all of the school’s delivery lorries.

 

The Member went on to acknowledge receipt of a response to these concerns from the Director of Community and Children’s Services which arrived shortly before this meeting began but stated that, even from a quick reading of this, he could

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

17.

Exclusion of the Public

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.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 17.

Minutes:

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)

                           18-19                                                                       7

                              20                                                                          3

                           21-22                                                                        -          

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

Gateway 4c Issue - Secure City Programme (SCP) - Video Management System / Video Analytics Workstream

Joint report of the Director of the Built Environment and the Commissioner of the City of London Police.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 18.

Minutes:

The Committee received a Joint Gateway 4C Issue report of the Director of the Built Environment and the Commissioner of the City of London Police concerning the Secure City Programme (SCP) – Video Management System/Video Analytics Workstream.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

19.

Secure City Programme (SCP) - Year 2

Joint report of the Director of the Built Environment and the Commissioner of the City of London Police.

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 19.

Minutes:

The Committee received a joint Gateway 2, Project Proposal report of the Director of Built Environment and the Commissioner of the City of London Police regarding the Secure City Programme (SCP) – Year 2.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

STREETS AND WALKWAYS SUB-COMMITTEE - NON-PUBLIC MINUTES

To receive the draft non-public minutes of the Streets and Walkways Sub-Committee meeting held virtually on 18 February 2021.

 

 ...  view the full agenda text for item 20.

Minutes:

The Committee received the draft non-public minutes of the Streets and Walkways Sub-Committee meeting held virtually on 18 February 2021.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

21.

Non-Public questions on matters relating to the work of the Committee

Minutes:

There were no questions raised in the non-public session.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

Any other business that the Chairman considers urgent and which the committee agrees should be considered whilst the public are excluded

Minutes:

The Committee discussed potential arrangements for meetings post 6 May 2021.

 ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.