Agenda item

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 2 June 2020.

The Committee considered the public minutes and non-public summary of the virtual meeting held on 2 June 2020 and approved them as a correct record.

MATTERS ARISING

E-Scooters (page 16) – Officers clarified that a report on e-scooters that they had originally hoped to bring to this meeting had been delayed as Department for Transport (DfT) guidance on e-scooter trials had not been published in sufficient time for them to be considered ahead of the paper deadline for today. They highlighted that this report would now therefore be put to the 14 July meeting of this Committee.

Changes to the Congestion Charge (page 19) – Officers reported that the letter sent by the Chair and Deputy Chair to the Mayor of London on this matter had been circulated to all Members of the Committee. It was highlighted that the temporary changes to the congestion charge came into effect yesterday and that TfL had confirmed that the reimbursement scheme for NHS and care home staff would be extended to local authority workers and charity workers providing certain support services during the ongoing pandemic. This would include domicilary care workers providing services on behalf of a local authority. The deadline for applying for residents discounts had also been extended to 1 August 2020 to provide those residents not currently registered with additional time to submit their applications. Finally, Members were informed that Officers were still awaiting clarification as to the timetable and process for reviewing these temporary changes and would look to bring updates on this to the Committee when they were available.

A Member commented that he was disappointed in the limited response received to the Chair’s letter. He added that a lack of clarification around the temporary period was also concerning as was the 1 August cut off date for new applications from residents. He asked that the Chair and Officers continue to pursue these points.

Officers reported that they understood that the Chair would receive a formal response to his letter from the Mayor’s office in due course. The Chair reassured Members that he had been in personal contact with the Mayor’s office and confirmed that they had proactively reached out to the City Corporation as a result of the letter. He undertook to continue to pursue the concerns of Members in terms of residents discounts and access to places of worship. The Chair went on to provide some further context by reporting that how the City Corporation was implementing its local arrangements/schemes as lockdown eased was a locally based approach and he had therefore suggested to the Mayor’s office that how exemptions and the like were dealt with should also be dealt with at a local/borough level. The Chair was now waiting to see if this proposal would gain any traction.