Agenda item

A report of the Director of Open Spaces (copy attached).

The Chairman introduced the tabled report on Planning Commitments in Open Spaces, and updated the Committee on his recent meeting with the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee to discuss the issue. He informed the Committee that the Chairman of Policy and Resources recognised the need for the City of London Corporation to state its case towards emerging strategic documents that would likely impact on property owned and managed by the Corporation, and therefore it was proposed that £25,000 be made available to fund formal expert planning and technical advice.

A Member welcomed the report, noting the impact of emerging Local Plans in local authorities bounding open spaces owned and managed by the Corporation. He noted however that often the Corporation found itself dealing with ad hoc planning applications such as The Water House and the Garden House adjacent to Hampstead Heath, and applications such as these absorbed a significant amount of local budgets. He argued therefore that a further £25,000 would be welcome to deal with such planning applications.

The Chairman did not disagree with the Member’s point, but argued that the Committee needed to focus on what was possible, and in this instance it meant securing a guaranteed £25,000.

In response to a further message of support for additional funding on top of the proposed £25,000 the Chairman reminded the Committee that the Open Spaces Department would need to be accountable as to how it spent the additional funds, and that a transparent body of evidence of how the money was spent in the coming financial year would be useful in seeking further funding if it was demonstrably needed. Furthermore he noted the need to influence emerging strategic documents such as Local Plans at this moment in time to guarantee that the Corporation did not face having to make representations against, from its perspective, unsatisfactory planning applications over the next decade and beyond.

A Member agreed, arguing that the report before the Committee was an important document in that it was setting a precedent for securing additional funding from within the Corporation itself, and the initiative matched the emerging strategic ethos of the Open Spaces and City Gardens Committee. Lastly he noted that the Greater London Authority was developing its own Local Plan and therefore he expressed the hope that officers would demonstrate continuing commitment to influencing the document.

RESOLVED:

·         That members endorse the appended report to the Policy and Resources Committee recommending that £25,000 is made available during financial year 2013/14 on a strictly ring fenced basis for the purchase of formal expert planning and technical advice.