Agenda and minutes

Venue: Livery Hall - Guildhall

Contact: Gemma Stokley  Email: gemma.stokley@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Welcome

The Chair welcomed Deputy Edward Lord to their first meeting of the Committee as the new representative of Farringdon Without in place of William Upton QC. He noted that they had spent time earlier this week undertaking the necessary refresher training with Officers.

 

Apologies for absence were received from Peter Bennett, Deputy Keith Bottomley, Graeme Harrower, Christopher Hayward*, Alderman Alistair King, Oliver Lodge, Alderwoman Susan Langley, Natasha Lloyd-Owen, Alderman Bronek Masojada, Andrew Mayer, Deputy Henry Pollard and James de Sausmarez.

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

2.

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

Minutes:

*Christopher Hayward has tendered his apologies for the meeting as a result of a conflict of interest in relation to the application to be considered at Item 4 (14-21 Holborn Viaduct 32-33 &34-35 Farringdon Street London EC1A 2AT).

 

For the avoidance of doubt, Deputy Jamie Ingham Clark declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he is a member of the Clothworker’s Company and noted that the papers at Agenda Item 5 were in the name of the Clothworker’s Company Limited which was one removed from this.

 

 

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

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 496 KB

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 16 November 2021.

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

Minutes:

The Committee considered the public minutes of the last meeting held on 16 November 2021 and approved them as a correct record.

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

4.

14-21 Holborn Viaduct 32-33 & 34-35 Farringdon Street London EC1A 2AT pdf icon PDF 8 MB

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director concerning 14-21 Holborn Viaduct, 32-33 & 34-35 Farringdon Street London EC1A 2AT – specifically demolition of existing buildings at 14-21 Holborn Viaduct, 34-35 and 32-33A Farringdon Street, and construction of a new building arranged over 2 basement levels, ground and 10 upper floors to Holborn Viaduct and 12 upper floors to Farringdon Street to provide a new Commercial, Business and Service (Class E) building; new publicly accessible lift to provide step-free access between Holborn Viaduct and Farringdon Street, hard and soft landscaping works and other works incidental to the development.

 

The Town Clerk introduced the item and also referenced the Officer slide pack and two late addendums published and circulated.

 

Officers presented the application highlighting that the site comprised three existing buildings which fronted onto both Holborn Viaduct and Farringdon Street. One of these – Kimberley House – was described as an unremarkable 12 storey 1970s office building with some retail at ground floor level with 32-35 Farringdon Street comprising a pair of six storey office buildings dating from the 1920s which, whilst of some character, were considered to be of low historic and architectural significance. Members were informed that the site did not sit within a Conservation Area and that none of the buildings concerned were listed. However, the adjoining gatehouse and Holborn Viaduct itself are both Grade II listed. It was highlighted that Turnagain Lane and Newcastle Close were both areas of public highway, albeit used for servicing buildings only and not providing through routes. Officers reiterated that planning permission was sought for the demolition of the existing buildings and erection of a single new office building consisting of a ground floor and ten upper storeys on Holborn Viaduct and 12 upper storeys on Farringdon Street.

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

5.

Stopping Up Application: Site Bounded by Fenchurch Street, Mark Lane, Dunster Court and Mincing Lane, London EC3M 3JY pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Report of the Executive Director, Environment.

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

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director, Environment concerning an application for stopping up of public highway for areas Fenchurch Street, Mark Lane, Mincing Lane and Star Alley, relating to the development of the site bound by these streets for which this Committee resolved to grant planning permission on 14 May 2020.

 

Officers explained that this report followed a report to this Committee on 26 January 2021 where Members had authorised the commencement of the process for the stopping up of the highway to enable the development of 50 Fenchurch Street. They had also agreed that unresolved objections to the proposed stopping up should be reported back to this Committee for their consideration. This report therefore considered the two unresolved objections and provided recommendations at paragraph 26 on how to now proceed.

 

RESOLVED – That the Committee:

 

1.    Agrees that it is minded to make the order;

2.    Acknowledges the objections and accepts that the objectors appear to be affected by the order;

3.    Authorises the Executive Director Environment to notify the Mayor of London of the objections;

4.    Authorises the Executive Director Environment to arrange for a local inquiry to be held, unless the Mayor of London decides that, in the special circumstances of the case, the holding of such an inquiry is unnecessary or the objection is withdrawn;

5.    Instructs the Executive Director Environment to report to this Committee on the report of the person holding the local inquiry should such an inquiry take place; and

6.    Instructs the Executive Director Environment to make the order should the Mayor of London decide that a local inquiry be dispensed with or the objection is withdrawn.

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

6.

City Fund Highway Declaration: 50 Fenchurch Street, EC3M 3JY pdf icon PDF 134 KB

Report of the City Surveyor.

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the City Surveyor seeking approval to declare a portion of City Fund freehold land/subsoil (421 sq. ft.) and a volume of airspace (741 sq. ft.) situated around 50 Fenchurch Street, EC3M 3JY to be surplus to highway requirements to allow its disposal in conjunction with the permitted development.

 

A Member stated that she understood that airspace above the streets could have a value in places such as New York and questioned whether the City also placed a value on this and, if so, whether this was a standard value or one which changed according to location. Officers reported that they did seek best value from the developer for highway transactions but that there was no fixed rate applied. Officers looked at individual schemes and site rates – if this involved airspace only then it was slightly discounted but, where land was required,  a full site rate was charged. Officers undertook to provide greater detail on this outside of the meeting to those Members who would like it. The Chair highlighted that it would be for the Corporate Asset Sub and Finance Committees to look at the financial implications of this matter as detailed at paragraph 15 of the report.

 

RESOLVED – That Members:

·         Resolve to declare a volume of City Fund land (held for highway purposes) measuring a total of 421 sq. ft. situated around 50 Fenchurch Street, EC3M, to be surplus to highway requirements to enable its disposal upon terms to be approved by the Corporate Asset Sub Committee and Finance Committee.

·         Resolve to declare a volume of City Fund airspace (held for highway purposes) measuring a total of 741 sq. ft. situated around 50 Fenchurch Street, EC3M, to be surplus to highway requirements to enable its disposal upon terms to be approved

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

7.

Revenue and Capital Budgets 2022/23 pdf icon PDF 147 KB

Joint report of the Chamberlain and the Executive Director, Environment.

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a joint report of the Chamberlain and the Executive Director Environment presenting for approval the revenue and capital budgets for the Planning and Transportation Committee for 2022/23.

 

The Chamberlain reported that the budget proposed for 2022/23 had seen a net reduction of just under £1.1 million. In setting the budget, Officers had stayed within the resource envelope set by the Resource Allocation Sub Committee. This included a 2% update for inflation, offset by 2% efficiency savings and therefore a flat cash budget. Pay increases for staff at grades A-C only of 1.525%, employer national insurance contribution increases of 1.25% and some budget adjustments for previously agreed Fundamental Review savings had also been factored in. As detailed at paragraph 7 of the report, this Committee currently had a budget of £1.885 million to identify for next year. In other areas under the Director’s remit, Port Health had a further £1million to identify, giving an overall budget pressure of just under £3 million still to identify. Members were informed that this did not, however, take into account the recent work being undertaken on the Target Operating Model where the Director had earmarked a number of initiatives concerning salary restructuring, efficiency savings and increased income streams which would enable the Department as a whole to reduce this budget pressure to approximately £0.5 million. This had recently been highlighted at the Member ‘Deep Dive’ sessions hosted by the Efficiency and Performance Sub Committee. It was reported that the Director was looking to further balance the budgets once she had been through the details of the Target Operating Model with the Open Spaces Department. Consideration was also being given to commencing a five year plan to address various working practices and opportunities for the Department with a view to further negating budget

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

8.

City Plan: Update on progress and next steps pdf icon PDF 230 KB

Report of the Executive Director, Environment.

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director Environment summarising the outcome of the consultation exercise on the City Plan and highlighting the key issues arising.

 

Officers reminded the Committee that they had agreed a draft plan for public consultation last Spring. Consultation had had to take place virtually owing to the ongoing pandemic and a very high number of responses had been received to this – over 1,300 representations which were summarised within the appendix to this report. Among these responses, it was highlighted that the Mayor of London considered that the Plan needed to be more prescriptive in terms of the City Corporation’s approach to tall buildings in order to achieve general conformity with the London Plan. It was noted that there was also a substantive group of responses in relation to heritage concerns and the need to strike the correct balance between development pressures and heritage issues. It was reported that the result of all of this was that it was now felt appropriate to pause the process and revisit the draft Plan accordingly to ensure that it was found to be sound at examination and did take into account new issues that have arisen in the past 12 months. The report set out six policy areas where it was suggested that the Plan now be sense checked – tall buildings as per the Mayor’s concerns, climate change where Officers could now build upon the momentum of COP26 and further embed the organisation’s own Climate Action Strategy, offices and office floor space given the changing nature of work and the increase in hybrid working, the role of retail and town centres in a changing environment, housing and housing delivery and finally health and inclusivity which the pandemic had brought to the forefront more so than ever

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

9.

Transport Strategy Update: Quarter 2 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 166 KB

Report of the Executive Director, Environment.

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director Environment providing an update on delivering the City of London Transport Strategy for quarter 2 of 2021/22 (July-September 2021).

 

A Member spoke to praise the continued efforts of Officers in attempting to introduce a 15mph speed limit and descried it as one of the best ways to guarantee that the City would achieve its vision zero in terms of deaths and serious injuries on its roads.

 

Another Member commented that he felt that vision zero was an aspirational target but was not necessarily achievable. He added that a big part of working towards this was emphasising personal responsibility.  

 

Officers thanked Members for their words of support on the 15mph campaign, stating that they were disappointed with the outcome of this. They highlighted that they remained committed to vision zero which was about saying that no deaths were acceptable on the City’s road and that they would therefore continue to work hard alongside City Police and consider what other work could be done around design speeds to improve the way that people move around the City.

 

A Member questioned work on St Paul’s Gyratory stating that he had thought that this was now dormant and was therefore surprised to see mention of delays affecting the existing programme within the appendix to the report.  He also referred to the Barbican & Golden Lane Zero Emission Zone and Healthy Streets Plan where the end date was marked as 2021/22 and questioned whether this was correct given that the works had hardly begun at present. Officers reported that it was still hoped that the Barbican & Golden Lane works would be significantly progressed during this financial year but that it was accepted that this might now also lapse into 2022/23. With regard to St Paul’s

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

10.

OUTSTANDING ACTIONS pdf icon PDF 98 KB

Report of the Town Clerk.

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

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Town Clerk detailing the Committee’s list of outstanding actions.

 

RECEIVED.

 

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

11.

PUBLIC LIFT REPORT pdf icon PDF 117 KB

Report of the City Surveyor.

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

Minutes:

The Committee received a public lift report of the City Surveyor for the period 30/10/2021 – 26/11/2021.

 

A Member observed that the London Wall down escalator had been available for 97.83% of the time during this period according to the report but questioned how this was calculated since he had known it to be out of operation very frequently in recent months. Officers stated that the Member appeared to be referring to the escalators that came down onto Wood Street which were not the responsibility of the City but of the developer. Officers undertook to follow up on this matter.

 

Members were informed that there was currently an issue with one of the escalators on London Wall which was out of operation at present and would therefore feature on the next public lift report. It was however expected that the fault would be fixed later this week.

 

RESOLVED – That Members note the report.  

 

Thanks to Alison Bunn

The Chair reported that Alison was soon to leave her post as Head of Facilities at the City Corporation after securing a senior role at Cambridge University looking at how they use their workspace. He thanked her for her attendance at this Committee on this matter and, on behalf of the Committee, wished Alison lots of luck in her new role.

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

12.

DELEGATED DECISIONS OF THE CHIEF PLANNING OFFICER AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR pdf icon PDF 219 KB

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

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

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director detailing development and advertisement applications determined by the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director or those so 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 12.

13.

VALID PLANNING APPLICATIONS RECEIVED BY DEPARTMENT OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT pdf icon PDF 116 KB

Report of the Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

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

Minutes:

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

 

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

 

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

14.

Questions on matters relating to the work of the committee

Minutes:

Barbican Podium Phase Two Works

A Member stated that he was concerned about the messaging going to the public and residents about these works highlighting that those living nearby had received nothing in the mail pertaining to the public consultation that was taking place on this. An email as part of the regular, monthly City Resident newsletter had been sent describing the waterproofing membrane priority and pinpointing where residents could view plans or ask questions had been distributed but, again, this failed to reference the public consultation. The Member remarked that this seemed very odd and insensitive.

 

The Chair reported that he and the Deputy Chairman would soon be meeting with Officers and others to discuss how this matter could be progressed governance wise. The Comptroller and City Solicitor reiterated that the issue here was around separation of functions as discussed at the last meeting and concerns that the Committee could not be the promoting Committee as well as the Committee that decided the planning application – something which applied to Officers and Members alike. She added that, ultimately, the question being posed today related to the promotion of the application and should therefore be put to the Committee responsible for advancing this in due course. Officers cautioned that, for this Committee to engage in the way in which the proposals were being developed prior to the submission of the planning application would risk it being involved in the promotion of the proposals and thereby remove any possibility of it being able to eventually consider the application itself.

 

The Chair undertook to keep the Committee informed of any progress around governance arrangements for this matter going forward.

 

Suspended Parking Bays

A Member stated that she had received a number of complaints from residents who had legally parked and paid to

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

15.

Any other Business that the Chairman considers urgent

Minutes:

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

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

16.

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 16.

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)

                             17                                                                      3, 5 &7

                             18                                                                        3 & 5

                         19 – 20                                                                       -

 

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

17.

Debt Arrears - Environment Department (P&T Committee)

Report of the Executive Director, Environment.

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

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director Environment informing Members of arrears of invoiced income as at 30th September and providing an analysis of this debt.

 

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

18.

Report of ACTION taken

Report of the Town Clerk.

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

Minutes:

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

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

19.

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 19.

20.

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

Minutes:

Target Operating Model Proposals

The Committee agreed to delegate authority to the Executive Director, Environment in consultation with the Chair and Deputy Chairman to take these proposals forward owing to time pressures. It was requested that all Members of the Committee be given the opportunity to view and comment upon the detailed proposals prior to their sign-off.

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