Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received fromIan Bishop-Laggett, Dawn Frampton,Deputy Marianne Fredericks, Antony Manchester, Deputy Alastair Moss, Deputy Brian Mooney,Alderwoman Sue Pearson, Judith Pleasance, Deputy Henry Pollard and Shailendra Umradia.

There were no declarations of interest.

Report of the Executive Director, Environment.

The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director, Environment which updated Members on the progress of the review and set out the findings of the review work to date.

Members were informed of the history of the All Change at Bank Project. They were informed that work was started in 2013 with the Bank on Safety Scheme whereby bus and cycle only restrictions were introduced.

The Officer stated that the project description of All Change at Bank was to improve safety, air quality and pedestrian experience of the area around the Bank junction to reflect the historic and iconic surroundings with the appropriate sense of place. The scheme objectives were to continue to reduce casualties by simplifying the junction, reduce pedestrian crowding levels, improve air quality and improve the perceptions of place.

Bank junction, which is surrounded by Grade 1, 2* and 2 listed buildings, above the third busiest tube station in London had almost 50,000 people entering/existing the station in the 3 hour morning peak period in 2016.  It had a poor safety record and poor air quality with the rate of exposure high due to the high footfall.

Pedestrian counts in 2014-15 showed 18,000 people crossed the Junction in 2014/15 in the morning peak hour, 4,500 people travelled through the junction by bus and cyclists made up 50% of the vehicles that passed through the junction. Cyclists were disproportionately being involved in collisions. In the five years leading up to the end of 2015, there had been 111 casualties at the junction and the approaches to the junction and two of these had been fatalities. The last fatality in 2015 led to the creation of the Bank on Safety scheme which was driven out of a need to improve safety more quickly than the layout of the

A Member raised concern about new entrances to Bank Station being closed during rush hour and advised that TfL had stated this was due to staffing issues. He asked that this be raised with the TfL Commissioner. The Chairman asked Members for their endorsement for him writing to the TfL Commissioner on behalf of the Committee.

RESOLVED – That the Chairman write to the TfL Commissioner on behalf of the Committee.

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