Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 9 October 2018.

The public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 9 October 2018 were considered and approved as a correct record.

MATTERS ARISING

Facilities for Public Cycle Parking (page 5) – A Member made reference to the comments made around this at the last meeting and the fact that e-bikes would require Wi-fi signal access. She went on to state that there were many Wifi blackspots within the City – some around the Guildhall complex – and added that the new development at 120 Fenchurch Street had also impacted on Wifi access for some mobile phone users. She questioned what Officers and developers were doing to address this. Officers undertook to raise this matter with Strategic Infrastructure colleagues in the City Surveyors Department and seek a response.

The Director of the Department of the Built Environment to be heard.

The Assistant Director (Planning & Policy) provided Members with a verbal update on the Local Plan consultation.

Members were informed that the Plan had been out for consultation from November until February. All City residents had been contacted regarding the Plan and emails had been sent to over 500 recipients on the Department’s mailing list. Members were informed that 175 responses to the consultation had been received to date which, whilst lower than anticipated, was approximately double the number of responses received for previous consultations. Officers reported that, whilst the CPA had around 150 members, they had chosen to submit a single, collective response.

Members were informed that the Local Plan had received lots of press and social media coverage since the launch of the consultation period. Officers reported that key issues that had emerged so far indicated that there was strong support for ‘greening’ in the City and for efforts around managing intensification in the City Cluster. Concerns around the protection of views of St Paul’s and the Tower of London had also emerged as key. Developers had expressed concerns around the cumulative impact of the City’s policies.

Officers tabled details of the City Plan Drop-In Sessions that had taken place throughout the consultation process as well as Stakeholder and public meetings. It was reported that this Committee would be tasked with looking at the responses received in greater detail in due course. The Assistant Director (Planning & Policy) highlighted the Youth Engagement Event that had taken place. He reported that the group involved had been aged 17-24 years and that there had been 38 participants. He reported that the group had been very engaged and tabled an evaluation report compiled from the feedback, outcomes and learning from the youth consultation event.

A Member stated that he was currently acting as

Report of the Director of the Department of the Built Environment.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of the Department of the Built Environment providing an update following consultation on the draft Transport Strategy.

The Committee focused discussion around the six key issues raised during the consultation:

Concerns over congestion and air quality impacts of delivering the Strategy

Officers reported that comments received from both residents and organisations had recognised that the Strategy would result in reduced capacity for vehicles in the City which would lead to more congestion and, in turn, impact on air quality. It was reported that no changes to the Strategy were proposed as result of these concerns due to the fact that proposals around this needed to be considered in the round, alongside ambitions to reduce emissions from motor vehicles and reducing general motor traffic and the number of freight vehicles on the City’s roads.

The Deputy Chairman stressed the need to push the narrative that the Transport Strategy was focused on prioritising people, safety, sensible speed limits and cycling over concerns around congestion.

In response to a question regarding whether there was any evidence to back up the concerns expressed around air quality, Officers stated that there was not and that these seemed to be based primarily on perception at present.

Members suggested that this should be tracked into the Air Quality Strategy with those expressing concerns as part of this consultation invited to contribute to the Air Quality Strategy consultation too. Officers confirmed that there would be cross reference between the two strategies.

A Member suggested that vehicles utilising the river also needed to be considered in terms of air quality as they often tended to be amongst the most polluting. This would be particularly important as the City continued to promote and encourage more travel by river.

Members went on to

There were no questions.

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 of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of 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 of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

            Item No                                                         Paragraph No(s)

                 9                                                                            3         

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 9 October 2018.

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 9 October 2019 were considered and approved as a correct record.

There were no questions in the non-public session.

There were no additional, urgent items of business for consideration in the non-public session.