Agenda item

Report of the Environmental Resilience Director.

The Committee discussed a report of the Environmental Resilience Director concerning the

Riverside Strategy for Public Consultation.

Officers introduced the report by stressing that whilst this was not part of the City’s Climate Action Strategy it was intended to work alongside it to create a working, accessible riverside. It was underlined that the strategy was the first of its kind for any riverside local authority.

A Member remarked that he Thames Estuary Partnership (TEP), of which the City Corporation were partners, had developed a range of schemes to soften the edges of the estuary for the benefit of marine life, including methods of adding biodiversity to flood barriers. He commented that the simplest method to enliven a vertical wall was to fix large wood shelves at different elevations between high and low tide, with the shelves designed to catch river water with each tide and be rapidly colonised by marine growth. He underlined that it was essentially analogous to a terrestrial green wall, but with the absence of any maintenance or irrigation. The Member suggested that the Blackfriars Tideway riverside walls would, for example, benefit from ledge marine growth such as this. Officers confirmed that increasing biodiversity along the river was one of the City Corporation’s key objectives. They stressed that this document was only draft at this point in time and that they would therefore be happy to work with the Member to ensure that the wording around this was correct and that an increase in biodiversity along the river was genuinely achieved.

A Member spoke to emphasise that this really needed to have wide consultation to ensure maximum input and a document that was fit for purpose. The Member suggested that details on who was to be consulted and how would be useful. Officers underlined that they intended to put the draft document on the City’s website for consultation and that they would be happy to provide Members with a full list of consultees outside of the meeting. They underlined that the document would go out to the majority of river users that Officers had been liaising with.

RESOLVED – That Members:

·         Agree that the Riverside Strategy continue to be progressed by the City Corporation and,

·         Endorse the draft Riverside Strategy to be sent out for public consultation for 6 weeks, subject to following up on the points above.