Agenda item

Report of the Planning & Development Director.

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Planning and Development Director which set out the potential ways that policies in the City Plan could be amended to reflect responses received in relation to culture, public uses and public spaces during the previous Local Plan consultation and the City Corporation’s Destination City objectives.

The City’s destination vision sought to renew the square mile making the city a leading destination for visitors and workers, increasing footfalls seven days per week and creating places in the City that would draw in cultural attractions, events and unique experiences. Developments were already required in the draft City Plan to provide cultural plans setting out how they would contribute to enriching the City’s cultural offer. Policy S12 required development to provide open spaces at street level and incorporate areas of publicly accessible open space or other facilities at upper levels. These spaces were being developed and the Roof Garden at 120 Fenchurch Street had been approved, as had the Migration Museum. In addition, the archaeological display at Vine Street had recently been opened. A cultural planning framework was being developed in conjunction with consultants Publica and colleagues in the Destination City team were helping to provide the strategic framework for understanding the cultural make-up of the City and how this could inform new development in different parts of the square mile.

The Officer stated that in the City Plan, there were some key policy shifts that could help to reinforce the delivery of cultural and other public spaces, and this was in response to consultation responses received in previous rounds of engagement. There was a need to ensure that the spaces created were inclusive and accessible and were celebrating the rich heritage of the City as the key reason people wanted to visit.

An Officer stated that a refreshed Policy S6, underpinned by the overarching Destination City theme was proposed in the City Plan. This would give the potential to provide a wider set of public uses and public spaces within the City as well as making the scale and provision more consistent. The Officer stated that the recommended three overarching priorities for the new culture policy included delivering a range of new public uses and spaces through new development, placing heritage at the heart of place shaping and ensuring new public spaces and uses were more accessible and inclusive to all. The Officer stated that there were two ways this could be approached. The first approach could be to set out different kinds of uses and spaces that could be delivered through new development. These uses could include museums, art galleries, visitor centres and exhibition spaces. Where there were public spaces e.g., roof gardens and public squares, this policy would also set out specific area requirements which would be expected from the proposed development. The amount of this contribution would depend on the quantity of floorspace and that would be proportionate to the uplift quantity. A benchmarking exercise of the Culture Plan submitted along with planning applications was carried out. This benchmarking data was used to identify threshold values above which developments would be required to deliver new public spaces and uses. The Officer stated that large-scale developments over 10,000 square metres met substantial contributions whereas for smaller developments the contributions were inconsistent. The proposed policy approach would require developments over 1,000 square metres to deliver specific amounts of floorspace of new public uses and spaces. The policy would give priority to on-site provision and make this a requirement for large-scale developments over 10,000 square metres. On site provision could be set out as a preference for developments of 1,000-10,000 square metres with off-site provision deemed acceptable where there was an identified public space or public use project within the vicinity which would lead to better outcomes. If it could be clearly demonstrated that on-site and off or off-site contributions could not easily be made and were not feasible and there were no identified projects within that area, financial contributions could be sought as part of a Section 106 agreement to deliver another new public space somewhere else in the city or make improvements to the existing public ream in the City. The benefits of this approach were that it would ensure effective delivery of public uses and spaces by setting out a clear matrix of floorspace requirements. This option would also give priority to on-site provision and at the same time ensure off-site or pooled contributions were secured where appropriate. The Officer stated that this approach was transformational in line with the Destination City objectives.

The Officer stated that the second approach was to adopt a bespoke approach for different types and scales of development. In this case, the type and amount of contribution would be determined on a case-by-case basis and there was an opportunity to explore multiple options. However, within this approach, requirements for the type and amount of contribution expected would not be set. The major drawback of this approach was that the policy could not be applied in a consistent manner and there could be situations where meaningful contributions could not be secured. The two other key priorities of the Culture Policy included inclusions and accessibility and celebrating the City’s heritage. In relation to inclusion and accessibility, the draft City Plan already set out a number of policies which sought publicly accessible spaces with new developments. To add weight to this policy requirement, the new policy would strengthen the requirement for the management of public spaces, particularly privately owned public spaces. The policy would outline how public spaces could be used and managed by setting out specific levels of public access requirements for different types of public spaces. The Officer stated that the next key priority was how to embed heritage within the cultural offer and celebrate the City’s heritage. Through the refreshed Culture Policy, developments would be expected to adopt a place-based approach to celebrating heritage, embed heritage in the culture offer, provide access to heritage assets, incorporate heritage into new developments, recognise and reflect the site area’s history in the design proposal and provide access to archaeological features wherever possible.

A Member asked if there was data to show how well terraces and viewing galleries were used. An Officer stated that since the Sky Garden opened, there had been 10 million visitors. Evidence showed there was significant interest in visiting viewing galleries. They were also appealing to a wider demographic than previously with teenagers and young people posting photos on social media. Each viewing gallery was unique in view and experience offered. They also created energy at ground floor level. The Member raised a concern that buildings at the lower end of the scale were not overburdened.

In response to concern from a Member, an Officer stated that work was taking place with the operator of the public space around the Cheese Grater building looking at possibilities for enlivening it. Lessons had been learnt and were being applied to other schemes. The Business Improvement District had also been working to try and use the space and enliven the area.

A Member raised concern about the queues for viewing galleries and security measures not being inclusive and welcoming. An Officer stated that security was required, however, there was a need to try and make it as inclusive and seamless as possible and that was a key part of negotiations.

A Member stated this policy would work well on large buildings but on smaller developments, requiring retrofits and extensions to have on-site provision could make them unviable. He suggested that where a development was 10,000 square metres of less, a monetary contribution could be a better option to avoid discouraging retrofit through this policy. The Member stated that there were merits in both approaches using a combination of the two policies outlined.

An Officer stated that anonymised data from a monthly report could be shared.

A Member asked if a specific fund could be set up within S106 to enable cultural use. An Officer stated that cultural spaces on smaller schemes was a challenge. In negotiating schemes, scoping was taking place of people who could be culturally curating these spaces. Officers were being proactive in understanding the types of operators and type of offers that could fit into these spaces.

An Officer stated that the proposed policy was for medium-scale developments. Although it would be unlikely that there would be a retrofit that would over 10,000sqm, modelling would be done in these circumstances. He stated that it was suggested that on-site provision be considered first but that off-site provision could be looked at, particularly where there was an off-site scheme that the provision could go to with developers working together to look at what they could provide in the area within the framework. The Officer stated that if off-site provision was considered first, on-site provision would not take place.

An Officer reiterated that the Sub-Committee considered flexibility to be important and Officers would work to find the right balance on this. He stated that security was a priority and Officers were proposing in the policy that the places should be advertised as inclusive and publicised to those in the vicinity. Developers could also be doing more to advertise spaces. There were two elevated viewing galleries opening in Summer 2023 at 8 Bishopsgate and 22 Bishopsgate and Officers would work with the Destination City team on publicity. Creative ways the Corporation could publicise these as destinations included having an App to alert people walking past that there was a viewing gallery nearby.

An Officer stated that lessons had been learnt from the popular Sky Garden which was the first pioneering scheme. When viewing galleries were now proposed, space was incorporated within the buildings for queuing so that queuing did not take place on the public realm.

The Chairman stated the importance of starting work on wayfinding as this would help with understanding and provide an evidence base for points being included in the Local Plan.

A Member raised concern about the cost of Beech Street Gardens when the Local Plan showed that footfall in these gardens had been the lowest of any of the City’s open spaces. 

A Member welcomed the inclusion of public uses in public spaces including indoor sports facilities and outdoor sports and play facilities.

A Member stated that he considered that most occupiers would want to be associated with uses such as roof terraces and that in a few years’ time work would be taking place to marshal where they should be places rather than just encouraging developers to include them in their developments.

An Officer stated that there was a current planning application for The Podium being negotiated with Officers to ensure it was fully integrated into the public realm. It would include play equipment, exercise equipment and greening to make it a place and a destination in its own right. There would be a commitment to wayfinding and there was a need to take a consistent approach across all of the stakeholders and this work was currently taking place. This application would be presented to the Planning Applications Sub-Committee in the near future.

A Member raised concern about how strategies fitted together and stated that as the City was going to lock into a fairly long-term plan, there was a need to ensure it fitted with other strategies.

A Member raised concern that there was a Cultural Policy rather than a Cultural Strategy. An Officer stated that the work being undertaken with Publica was to develop a cultural planning framework. It was looking spatially at the City as a whole, the cultural assets within the City, the character of different areas of the City and how new development could contribute to this in a meaningful way. The policy had been designed to be relatively flexible. It would set out a policy requirement for developers to make a meaningful contribution with the Cultural Planning Framework helping to inform these types of spaces and how they would operate. Work was also taking place to speak to cultural occupiers about the work they were doing. An Officer stated that a significant part of the policy shift was the Celebrate Heritage approach. This was applied to 85 Gracechurch Street where a deep dive was undertaken into the scheme. There was a creative process to understand collating archaeological remains in a dedicated site. Each site had its own challenges and opportunities and a bespoke approach had to be applied to each site.

A Member commented that it was relatively straightforward to change use within Class E. An Officer confirmed this was the case and also stated that within the draft City Plan, Policy HL5 covered the need for the provision of community facilities if there was a requirement for them.

The Chairman stated that hotel room demand was increasing year on year. Some of this was overspill from the West End but much of it was leisure users coming to explore the City and wider London area, particularly at weekends. He stated that it was important, when developing a cultural plan and sites of attraction, to also build in supply chain and logistical elements e.g., with TfL and other transport providers, hotels, food and beverage outlets so that the City could meet the increase in demand. The Chairman stated this should be included in the Local Plan to ensure there was a holistic approach.

Members commented that the provision of public toilets was also an important consideration and raised concern about the current provision. An Officer advised that there was a specific policy on public toilets included in the draft Local Plan to make toilets available for the public. An Officer advised that there were currently four major schemes where discussions were taking place about the potential to incorporate toilets for public use.

A Member commented that in relation to the provision of open spaces, quality was important as well as quantity. An Officer advised that the thermal comfort work that had been done was key to understanding the look and feel in open spaces e.g., how comfortable people were there through the seasons.

The Chair stated that the discussion had been useful and provided feedback for Officers to work on.

RESOLVED – That Officers continue to progress work on the City Plan based on Members’ views on the proposed policy direction for City Plan policy that sought to secure cultural and other public uses and spaces in new developments.