Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday 19 November 2024, 7:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting
Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 19th November 2024 at 7:30pm
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Agenda item :
1 Minutes of the Previous Meeting
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2 Declarations of Interests
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3 Local Plan: Partial Review (Paper No. 24-320)
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4 Clapham Junction Masterplan and the Proposed Transformation of Falcon Road Bridge (Paper No. 24-321)
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8 Battersea Park Area CPZ Review: Outcome of Consultation (Paper No. 24-325)
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5 Quiet Cycling Routes Update (Paper No. 24-322)
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6 Wandsworth Corporate Plan Actions and KPIs Performance Monitoring (Paper No. 24-323)
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7 School Streets Programme Review (Paper No. 24-324)
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9 Local Implementation Plan (Paper No. 24-326)
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10 Budget Monitoring: Second Quarter [2024/25] (Paper No. 24-349)
Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.
Thank you.
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to this meeting of tonight's Transport, Overview
and Scrutiny Committee.
This meeting is being webcast and some officers maybe are actually accessing virtually this
evening, I can say.
We also have Councillor Hogg joining us online for some of the early papers as well.
So please do bear with us if we experience any technical difficulties.
My name is Councillor Fraser, I'm chair of the Transport Committee and welcome you all
this evening.
Members of the committee, I'm going to start with Councillor Mayorkas on my left in a second,
if you would just like to go round and introduce yourselves please.
Councillor Mayorkas, Trinity Ward.
Councillor Matthew Tiller, Ray Hampton Ward.
Councillor Sara Aps, Sheffsbury and Queenstown Ward.
Good evening Chair Tony Balsam, Battersea Park Ward.
Good evening Councillor Nick Austin, West Putney Ward.
Hello, Caroline de Lecce -Rouge, St Mary's Ward.
Hello, good evening Daniel Hamilton, Ballon.
Thank you very much and apologies this evening have been received from Councillor Critchard
and Councillor Locher. Members are reminded to please do ensure that your microphone is
turned off unless you are speaking.
When you're called to speak and every time you do speak,
please state your name and bear in mind
that this committee must remain quorum at all times.
So agenda item one this evening,
we have the minutes of the last meeting
held on Monday the 7th of October.
1 Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Doesn't feel too long ago, but please do let me know,
can those meeting minutes be agreed?
Agreed, thank you very much.
I will sign those initial days.
2 Declarations of Interests
And are there any declarations of interest in this meeting this evening?
Pecuniary or non -pecuniary?
No?
Okay, thank you.
And just before we delve into the business this evening, I'm going to ask whether members
would be okay with a small switch around of the agenda.
I'm going to propose to keep items three and four as they are on the local plan, Clapham
Junction master plan, but we have one officer joining us online for the Battersea Park CPZ
paper which should I'm I think we'll probably pass quite quickly but to make
sure that we can have him kind of log off a bit earlier this evening is it
okay with councils if we take that after those items thank you very much okay so
3 Local Plan: Partial Review (Paper No. 24-320)
agenda item three is the local plan partial review and I believe we have
councillor hog on the line for this on the line online and he would like to say
a few words on this paper before passing over for an officer introduction and then questions.
Hello chair, can you hear me? Yep we can hear you, thank you.
Wonderful, well thank you very much for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is
Simon Hogg, I'm the leader of the council but also within the cabinet. I take responsibility for
strategic planning issues like this and yeah it's a really exciting paper because we all know
Wandsworth is a great place to live and we welcome all growth and investment,
particularly in new housing.
I think this is a really important milestone in a hugely crucial priority for us.
I think 50 percent affordable housing in all new developments will transform lives
because a decent affordable place to call home is the foundation of a good life.
We have more than 10 ,000 of our fellow residents waiting for housing at the moment,
3 ,000 of those woke up this morning homeless in Wandsworth Council temporary
accommodation so this is absolutely crucial we can deliver more affordable
homes because local people can't access those those new build flats by the river
if you've grown up here they're out of reach for you so this administration has
been very clear we're delivering genuinely affordable homes for local
people not you know luxury flats targeted overseas investors and that's a
really important distinction. As a listening council that means consultation
on this proposal we've engaged, we have put forward amends, we've considered
feedback and I would really strongly recommend that the committee backs the
specific local plan amendments that we've put forward in the paper. Thank you
very much. Thank you councillor and now I'm going to pass over to Mr. Goodman to say a
in the office side as well. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I think all I would add at this
point is just to kind of iterate some of the next steps following this paper, subject to
obviously committee decisions. What we're looking to do next is to take these policy
amendments out for a further round of public consultation. So this is called the Regulation
19 consultation. At this stage, we'll be looking for respondents to provide views on whether
they feel like the amendments we're making are sound and legally compliant, and there
are a series of tests prescribed for those kind of statements.
As part of that consultation, obviously, as I said out in the report, we'll be looking
to kind of cast the net as far wide as we can and engaging with anyone with an interest
and who's likely to be affected by what we're looking to do.
Following that consultation, we would be looking to submit the draft policies, any supporting
documents and any responses received to the consultation to the secretary of state who
will then appoint a planning inspector to oversee an examination next year.
At this point, very happy to take any questions from councillors at your discretion, chair.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
So, councillors, it's over to you now for any questions.
Okay, thank you.
I've seen Councillor Apps, Councillor Belton, and then was that a hand there, Councillor
Hamilton?
Okay, that's a council belt in council Hamilton
Thanks very much, I'm very excited to see this policy and developing and I hope it develops with good speed
My main question is is about how this policy is cost -effective
You know, how would the rewards compare with the costs of delivering it? So if there's more you can say on that
That would be helpful. Thank you
Thank you, Councillor.
If I begin to give an answer, I may pass over to my colleague Debbie Turner to give some
more, kind of, meat on the bone, if you like.
As part of this process, we've undertaken new pieces of, kind of, technical evidence.
One of the key parts of that is a, kind of, whole plan viability assessment, which looks
at the, kind of, material impacts of pursuing these new policies on general viability.
What we're really clear about as part of this is it's an opportunity to deliver more social rented housing,
which is clearly the priority here, more genuinely affordable housing overall.
And for the first time, tap into contributions from smaller developments,
which previously weren't required to deliver any kind of contribution towards affordable housing.
And that's been tested through that evidence base, and we are confident that the position that it's achievable across a majority of sites.
and that there's mechanisms within the policy
to deal with sites which genuinely cannot
provide that level of contribution.
So that's the real benefits in this scenario.
In terms of the cost, that whole plan viability piece,
again, is the area where the impacts
on deliverability of developments, et cetera,
has been tested.
And as I say, I mean, we're confident
that across the piece, across the borough,
we're looking at a set of policies which are deliverable
for the majority of sites that have been tested,
or sites, I apologize, that have been tested.
I don't know, Debbie, if there's anything you want to add
at this point, thank you.
Yes, thank you.
Yes, my name's Debbie Turner.
I'm the Principal Development Viability Officer
and I've done a lot of work on the whole plan viability
as well alongside the consultants, BMP Paribas,
who have done the work for us and obviously have
extensive knowledge and experience of values in the area.
I think one of the key aspects is that obviously
delivering more affordable homes obviously limits
then pressure on temporary accommodation,
which at the moment is a substantial cost to the council.
So by increasing the level of affordable housing delivered,
and especially the level of social rented housing,
is that's really where the need is,
and that's often where households
are waiting for social rented housing.
That's where they can often fall
into temporary accommodation,
and increasing that level of social rented housing
by, on top of the 50%,
Also looking to looking at the tenure split of the 70 30
social rented to intermediate tenure and that's another way where we can we can really improve the level of social rented delivery and
That would in turn make it more cost effective to the council as well
Okay, thank you very much council Belt and you next
I've got a couple of questions really
One is is
About the tenure issue has just been mentioned and isn't covered in the plan at all.
I'm not sure it can be.
But in my ward, Battersea Park ward, very close to Battersea Park station,
Battersea Power station, Tube station, and Queenstown Road station.
Just going into any block, it's a constant stream of people carrying suitcases.
It's just continuous.
And half the properties, including council properties that have been sold on, are now
out for B &B use.
And that's all that happens to them.
It's just amazing just going there and everyone bumping into suitcases all the time.
In a way, it's a very difficult question for you.
And I think I've been aiming politically at both parties.
What are we going to do about that kind of usage?
Because it seems to me it's just soaking up accommodation all over the country and
the country resorts, seaside resorts particularly, but everywhere.
And we just haven't handled that.
But that also builds into tenure and the council house sales policy that still exists.
And I wonder what anyone has thought about that.
That's one that it's set, which I think is quite difficult for you.
The other area that intrigues me is that we've got the London plan as well, which this has to cohere with.
But quite clearly, the aspirations in here are not necessarily the same.
I mean, they may be aimed towards the same goal, but they're actually not the same in terms of percentage of affordable and percentage of rentable
and in terms of the student accommodation.
If the government finally, the inspector finally agrees
our version, which in some areas is quite considerably
different from the London plan,
what do I as a developer do?
Do I ask Articutect to do something that's in line
with the London plan or the Wandsworth plan and who do I ask and get advice to or from?
Thank you, Councillor. If I may take the second question first, if that's okay, just around
kind of the conformity with the London plan. The different components of the policy, so
let's take, for example, the 70, 30, 10 year split in favour of social rented housing.
And that's in conformity with the London Plan,
which as you may know, says that essentially
there's kind of maximum position that any of the two types
of tenure can have, which is up to 70%.
So we're really pushing the margins of that,
but we are within that kind of envelope.
In terms of the overall approach, the 50 % target,
the local fast track route, et cetera,
what we have looked to do is work within the kind of
framework of the London plan, look at the mechanisms that are within the London plan to deliver affordable housing.
And seek to adapt those locally.
So the same principles and the same framework would apply, but
we have increased the threshold to use the fast track approach as an example.
So as you say, I mean an inspector will need to consider our policies as part of the process that we expect to happen next year.
But what we have sought to do throughout this process is work within that London plan framework, but
and also maximize what we can do to deliver
as much social rented housing as possible.
And on the question around, as a developer,
how you interface with that.
There's a kind of key principle in terms of planning policy
that more recent policy that's found sound
would kind of supersede generally older policy.
So in that sense, a new Wandsworth policy that's adopted
would tend to be treated, particularly I would suspect,
by planning applications committee at Wandsworth
and ones with planning offices as more relevant and therefore the policy that should be applied
compared to the London Plan policy, which dates from 2021.
So that would, I believe, be the position that we would take in this scenario.
And there is reasonable flexibility within the London Plan to cater for local policies
and an amount of local discretion on the interpretation of those policies.
In terms of the first question, I think as you touched upon, it is a difficult question
to answer from a planning perspective.
I think in terms of how we deliver more social rented housing and more affordable housing
overall and therefore reduce the need for B &B accommodation and temporary accommodation,
that is one kind of tool in our armory and one aspect and outcome that we would hope
to get from this review, and that may therefore have an impact.
There is a degree to which planning rules around these things are not necessarily able
to prevent those kind of changes from happening.
And so therefore, we always have to stay within the kind of system
within which we work.
But I think as a general point, what we are aiming to do
through this policy is obviously reduce the dependency on things
like local B &Bs and what like for temporary accommodation
and therefore possibly reducing the kind of scenes
that you've been observing.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Hamilton, you next.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And thank you also to officers and Mr Goodman in particular for the clarifications that
were provided in the pre -brief, which were extremely useful for us.
I just had a couple of questions on this.
The first, I obviously have no argument with the fact that the Executive and the Administration
could propose these type of changes.
I think it's been a longstanding commitment that the Labour Party have had to bring through
many of these changes. But a question I do have is about the viability of some of this.
When I look particularly at policy LP 23, the Affordable Housing Strategic Policy, I
do notice that in the document I think the word viability is used 32 times in that particular
report. And the question I do have, I've noticed there's plenty of sort of carve -outs
here. It mentions in respect of small sites that if they're not viable there'll be flexibility
for the planning committee to put those projects through. Similarly in LP 30 on the build to
rent paper, it again mentions there'll be an element of flexibility from the committee.
Is this plan, and I may just use the word viability a lot, but is this actually just
a sort of statement of principles, or do you genuinely believe that this policy, that this
document will really actually provide this housing mix that you wish to
achieve because there appears to be a lot of flexibility built in here as
opposed to really putting your money on your mouth is and wants to drive this
through so just a question on whether this really is a viable plan. Thank you
I'm just checking. Maybe more political. Oh yeah and that's what I'm sensing
Councillor Hogg are you still with us for that one?
Hello. Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, as you know, this was a manifesto pledge.
It's going to be delivered.
We do think 50 % of affordable housing is deliverable.
It's just we think it's viable in every sense.
But, you know, planning applications will have to determine things case by case.
Officers will have to look at things side by side.
You know, we're going to be open and pragmatic, as you know.
It's a different regime for smaller schemes than larger ones.
but I think it's worth saying at the moment those smaller schemes aren't contributing
at all to affordable housing and this will actually close that loophole and ask for a
contribution. But yes, we're absolutely determined to make it a success and we hope you'll be
able to support it.
Thank you. Do we have any further questions? Councillor
Austin.
Thank you very much, Councillor Fraser. I've just got a couple of points. Moving on from
The word genuinely was used quite a lot.
As a property person, I look at KPIs, I look at build out costs, I look at whole values
and land values.
What does genuinely actually mean?
What are the key performance indicators on that?
What constitutes a genuinely affordable home?
It's a very rounded term but there's no specific detail.
and cost and such that, if I can tack one on the back on page 23.
You said that you tested a range of common site types within the borough.
How many did you test and of those sites, how many of them failed and for what reasons?
Thank you, Councillor.
Just to cover the point around genuinely affordable.
That's defined in the London plan.
It's around the products that are considered genuinely affordable and products which are
not considered genuinely affordable.
So in a ones with context, we would obviously support things
like social rent being considered genuinely affordable.
The London plan also treats some intermediate tenures
like London living rent as being genuinely affordable.
There are other tenures of affordable housing,
such as certain, I would say, kind of discount market
rent schemes, which tend to be at a lower discount
compared to particularly social rent,
which would not meet that definition.
So the additional clarification is really just to make it clear that there are certain
products which we would consider to meet a genuinely affordable need.
And there are certain products which, mostly due to the limited discount they offer against
market housing, to not really cater for an affordable housing need.
The discount, the kind of rent or the cost of that affordable product still being very
high and therefore out of reach of most people.
If I may, I might pass to my colleague, Ms. Turner,
just to cover the point about the typologies,
as she has a lot more awareness
of the whole plan viability assessment than I, thank you.
Thank you, yes.
In relation to the whole plan viability,
we tested around 48 different site typologies,
and those included, obviously, smaller sites,
so sites under 10 units, also larger sites,
mixed use sites, and as well,
kind of some student accommodation as well,
and other kind of sheltered accommodation site types as well.
Those were based on similar site types
to what were tested as part of the whole plan viability,
which formed part of the evidence base
for the recently adopted local plan.
So and obviously that went through the examination
comfortably in relation to the whole plan viability.
So we felt that that was a very kind of useful measure
in continuing to use those kind of similar typologies
as they do reflect the site allocations coming forward
within the adopted local plan.
So we felt that that was a good number of site typologies
looking at the different types of diversity of development
through Wandsworth.
We also looked at different open market values as well.
So there were nine different basically open market values
that we looked at ranging from around 8 ,000 pounds
per square meter all the way up to around
14 ,000 pounds per square meter.
So that then obviously brings a little bit of difference
in terms of we can then really look at those high value areas
versus the lower value areas across the borough as well.
So we did do very, very thorough testing
in relation to the whole plan viability
and the majority of those site typologies
were viable at 50 % affordable housing.
Obviously there is, again, there are always going to be
some level of sites which do have
to have that level of flexibility.
There can be sites that have substantial contamination
or substantial infrastructure costs.
So that's where that little bit of flexibility
is kind of needed in the policy.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Councilor Hamilton was that your, yeah.
Sorry, thank you very much.
Just a quick question.
Obviously there's lots of debate at the moment
about government revisiting announcements
on local authority housing targets.
Just curious to know how these will be reflected
in the revised local plan going forward, and also a request on the part of the Conservative
group. We find it very useful if there could be a table, I think, in future papers which
shows what the targets are for unit delivery and how those would change as a result of
this plan. So if that could possibly be provided, it would be very useful for us to see. Just
while I'm here, if it's okay, if there could just be one sort of further request.
I very much welcome on page 20 .5 the mention of engagement with the Borough Residence Forum
on this proposed changes scheme.
Just a comment from the leader, if possible, about what could be done if we do have other
groups that want to feed into this.
Are the Executive willing to meet with other groups in the borough to receive further input
on the changes to the plan?
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think we had a question in several parts.
So is that kind of two for Officer, one political?
Yeah, okay.
So yeah, we'll move in that order then.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor.
In terms of the housing targets and for anyone's benefit
who may not have seen the kind of press around this,
there's a recent consultation on changes
to the National Planning Policy Framework,
part of which related to the standard method
for calculating local housing need.
I think the important thing to say for a borough like Wandsworth, and as is true for any London
borough, is that we actually inherit a capacity -based housing target from the London Plan.
And so it's through that London Plan interface that we work out what the housing target for
a local plan should be.
So for context, that housing target in Wandsworth's adopted local plan is 1 ,950 homes per year.
The government's standard method at the moment calculates a housing need of around 2 ,600 homes per year.
And under the new method, that would rise to around 3 ,800 homes.
The main caveat I'd put on those figures is that they are the result of quite a large
algorithm that doesn't take into account the ability or the capacity of an area to meet that need.
It's based purely on demographics.
And so that London Plan capacity based approach is essentially an endeavor from the GLA with
support from boroughs to distribute London's housing need in a way that better reflects
actual capacity within boroughs.
So in that context, for the time being, we're going to continue to use the 1950 homes a
year figure to assess the sufficiency of our housing supply.
We have a significant buffer in our planned housing supply over that figure.
And so in that sense, we are confident that in pursuing these policies,
we are not going to impact on our overall ability to meet our housing target.
You may be aware that the GLA are planning to update the London plan.
We will obviously work with them through that process and there may well be in the next 12 months,
a consultation on a draft London plan that introduces a new capacity -based housing target
for Wandsworth that obviously we will advise on.
And it's likely, as these things are cyclical, that we will need to do a full review of the
Wandsworth local plan in the next few years to take account then of an updated London
plan.
So just to reassure you that those figures that are in that press aren't technically
really relevant in the short -term to a Wandsworth picture.
it's that London plan -derived figure for the time being.
In terms of the question around
kind of the components of change and how that looks,
that's the kind of thing that we'd definitely be publishing
at the point of the consultation.
So we're planning to do a topic paper,
as is quite common to these scenarios,
setting out some of those statistics
for the benefit of people responding.
So I don't see there's any reason why,
when that's available and public,
then we'll obviously can provide a version of that.
Hopefully that answers all your questions.
apologies if I missed anything do let me know thank you thank you and I think
there's just one council hug on an engagement with with groups like the
borough residents forum yeah absolutely so I mean credit to the officers
involved this has already been a incredibly wide consultation you know
hundreds of people in groups have been able to be consulted to feed into it but
you know very happy for other groups to be encouraged to do that and next up is
that six week consultation early next year where people will have another chance to have
their say.
Great, thank you very much. I'm going to go to Councillor Belton for the final question.
Very minor detailed question, I was interested in the paper refers to Roehampton University
having full accommodation for students. I don't think I saw any reference to St. George's,
which must be possibly the biggest university branch,
possibly bigger than Roehampton even, I don't know.
How is the accommodation, do they have enough accommodation
to cover all their students?
Thank you, Councillor.
So we've engaged with both universities in the past.
I think certainly the picture that we had
at a point in time, a recent point in time,
is that their accommodation needs are sufficient
in terms of what's located in and around their own campuses.
I think it's always a moving picture.
It's important that we continue to engage with them
around those situations, but certainly we don't foresee,
in the evidence we've produced, the housing needs assessment
a significant need for additional accommodation
for those two universities in particular,
but we're obviously open to continuing to engage with them
if that picture changes.
Thank you very much, Councillors and Officers, for your questions and comments on that paper.
I'm now going to move on to the vote on this paper. So the committee are asked whether
they agree to support the recommendations of the Executive in paragraph 2 of the report.
So please can I see a show of hands for all those in favour?
So five for all those against.
Zero and any abstentions?
So three abstentions.
Thank you very much councillors.
That concludes the item on the local plan.
Continuing on the strategic planning element of tonight's agenda, item four is the Clapham
4 Clapham Junction Masterplan and the Proposed Transformation of Falcon Road Bridge (Paper No. 24-321)
Junction master plan and the proposed transformation of Falcon Road bridge.
Again, I believe Councillor Hogg would like to say a few words on this and then I'm going
to move to officers for a quick update before questions.
So over to you, Councillor Hogg.
Thanks chair and apologies for not being able to be there in person this evening.
Very briefly, just to say I think most people in Battersea across the borough will know
this rather unpleasant, slightly dingy underpass at Clapham Junction.
It's been there for many years.
residents have told us they really want it to change to improve so really really pleased we've
been able to bring forward this proposal use contributions and property developers and to
fund real change as part of our decade of renewal in the borough so you'll already have seen a
doubling of our investment in roads and pavements and not adding a penny onto your council tax now
we're doing the same moving on to some of our infrastructure initially with this underpass so
working with our excellent partners at the London Festival of Architecture.
We've got together these great designs,
dozens of entries, now down to the final seven,
I think, do please have a look.
They're outside the bridge in Clapham Junction.
You can see them in Battersea Library.
You can vote for them online on your phone.
It's creating a wonderful debate about which one's going to be the best.
But we are going to pick one very soon.
We are going to implement it very quickly.
and just to say there'll be more to come.
You know, we have freed these developer contributions
to be used in every neighborhood across the borough.
So I would encourage both the councillors there this evening
and all members of the public to, you know,
please get in touch, come up with your next idea
for investment to give everyone pride in their neighborhoods.
Thank you very much.
I'm now going to move to, I think, Niko, Mr. Ardeona,
I can see you down there.
Do you want to say a few words on this before we open it for questions?
Thanks, Councillor. Just to add to what Councillor Hogg has said and just give a bit of wider context,
this project around the Falcon Road on Pass is very much seen as a very first early phase of work within the area.
The wider master plan had Weston Williamson and partners appointed at the end of last year.
They've been looking at lots of the issues around the station and the movement generally within the area,
looking at wider concepts of connectivity and that work will become
much more public next year and is progressing well in the sense of early
ideas and thoughts around it but as Councillor O 'Graw rightly says the the big
eyesore remains the underpass it's come up a lot in correspondence from
partners and stakeholders and residents and there's an opportunity here to try
and tackle that in the course of the next calendar year. We have got funding
secured. We've done some provisional work with our term contractor, Conways, to get
a sense of what sort of indicative costs might be involved with that. We've built in a very
healthy contingency at this point of around 40%, because a lot of it is unknown yet, and
obviously we haven't got a design per se, albeit it's coming forward, but we feel with
that amount of budget in place we can deliver a very attractive scheme that will look at
a lot of improvements around the area and obviously act as a catalyst over the world
of change.
Thank you, Mr. Johnathan. Okay, I saw some very quick hands go up there. So I'm going
to go to Councillor Aps, Councillor Hamilton. Thank you.
Thank you. This is a question possibly for Councillor Hogg or possibly for Mr. O 'Donnell.
Very pleased to see, I see I'm very pleased to see this project of somebody living in
have to say, you could hardly fail to miss it. It's going to make a big difference. I
like all of the schemes. I shan't tell you which is my favorite, but I'll look forward
to seeing it in place. On this, though, I know from page one, two, four, the comments
from the executive director for finance, so that's come from the general fund capital
program, but could you tell me a bit more about specifically where this is, how this
is being funded and how that will move forward.
Thank you.
Councillor Hugg, I think it was a question about whether it's
to you, officer.
I don't know if you wanted to come in,
and then Mr O 'Donnell can pick up
if there is anything else on the funding element.
Well, I'll answer the question if Sara tells me
her favourite design for the bridge.
But maybe she can tell me that later.
But the answer is it will be paid for from developer
contributions.
but they fund the general fund capital allocation that's been made. So as I say, it won't add
a penny onto your council tax.
Okay, thank you. Councillor Apt, does that answer your question? Lovely. Okay, Councillor
Hamilton, over to you.
Thank you very much. I think, look, I think it's a good idea to do this. I think having
been to the site, meant to be recently to take a look, it is grim at the moment. And
I think actually this kind of work is something I think will make a material difference to
the community around it and I think will improve this part of Battersea.
The question I have though, it does seem unusual, particularly in light of the fact that some
money was provided by Network Rail for the improvements to the bridge in Ballum and Old
York Road, but it doesn't seem to be a contribution from Network Rail to completing these works.
And I just wondered if any efforts could be made, I appreciate the recommendation will
go through this evening, but if some kind of undertaking could be made to obtain potentially
some funding from Network Rail, because I think they have a responsibility, because
the owners of the site, to make sure that they do contribute and give something back
to the community. And similarly, if we're looking at the significant capital investment
on this, it's £4 .5 million, how will this be funded, maintained in the long term? And
again, is there a role that's here, so that Network Rail can play in providing some funding
to do that.
Thank you. Mr O 'Donnell, did you want to come up?
Yep, so in the case of Network Rail in particular, they tend to work via kind of investment cycles
and so they identify all of their assets and have them in a kind of provisional program
for improvement over time. In the case of Bannam and Old York Road, they were already
down to be improved and they had them in their investment strategy, investment plans and
we basically piggybacked on what they were already planning to do, hence we could share
the costs.
In this instance, whilst it is clearly visually unattractive, it's structurally sound and
there aren't elements of it that are going to fall away any time soon, so it's not within
their five -year horizon for investment.
Hence at this stage, whilst they've been very collaborative and very supportive and they're
giving us plenty of time and access to drawings, et cetera, et cetera, there isn't at this
point in time a contribution from them and I think they'd struggle outside the normal
investment cycles to find that. But we're happy to continue pressing on
that in relation to trying to get that and take that forward. And in terms of
longer term maintenance, the idea would be any design that comes forward would
seek to try and minimize any potential maintenance going forward. But we will
build in provisional sums to cover that over periods of time.
Thank you, Council. How did you have a follow up to that question? I did more
full observation. Okay, just to ask chair if nested any violent disagreement
from any other members of the committee. It would be great if it could be
that the committee would like to see if possible some contribution for CFL for this scheme.
But I don't know if I'm out there for other members to agree.
Sorry, from Network Rail, my apologies.
From Network Rail.
I think that's probably one for kind of officers and I'm sure it's part of those
discussions based on kind of the control periods and the forward plan that Network Rail have.
Okay, next up I've got Councillor Milgus and Councillor Belton.
Thank you.
Apart from the aesthetic improvements, what improvements can we expect to see for pedestrians and those on bikes?
So we've had a look in relation to what could potentially be done within the area.
The difficulty, if you know it well, is that you have a very constrained space there.
Very limited amount of space to play with, so you couldn't, for example,
put in a cycle lane there, for example,
without either taking away a footway
or reducing the rate of the extent
you can run two -way traffic down there.
So there are constraints.
Clearly, we're looking to improve
the overall environment for both.
I think part of that will be improving the lighting
because it's very, very, there is lighting there,
but it's not very well lit at times.
The pavements and general walls are in a horrible state,
water leaking down them, et cetera.
So I think a cleaner, brighter area gives a sense of safety for pedestrians, particularly
more vulnerable users.
I think we will still look at the pavements and what we might be able to do in terms of
maybe trying to do a little bit of space, just slightly wider.
And obviously we'll be looking at how cyclists and other users travel through there, particularly
with the view to levels of traffic and speed of traffic through there.
Thank you.
Councillor Belton.
Thank you, Chair.
What Mr O 'Donnell just said has changed my question a little bit.
Do you recall when, I don't suppose you do,
but do you recall when the tunnel was last cleaned up?
I do quite well.
Would it be early 2000s or 90s?
When do you reckon?
It depends on what you define as clear.
It got given sort of an extensive kind of jet wash down
About three or four years ago believe it or not the difficulty is with anything like that because of the fact. It's very
Encased if you like the the dirt very quickly returns, so the effect is a very short -term one in terms of that improvement
Even quicker than I thought the road is ours is it not it's not TFLs correct in which case
I'm slightly surprised that we're not more specific in terms of the brief.
You just now said the roads too narrow to take other than, I'd kind of challenge that.
I think there are bits of roads and possibly the mayor intends to make parts of Oxford Street
narrow where just buses can pass or something like that.
I'm just slightly surprised that we didn't have any,
well, or perhaps we did, we just haven't seen it,
but any kind of brief about what we expect
in terms of maximum potential separation
of pedestrian and cyclist traffic,
and whether we should not have given
a more specific brief, but that, of course,
we don't know about.
So just to add to that, we have done assessments
looking at the widths there.
You have to accommodate a minimum width
for effectively two buses passing the door,
particularly two emergency vehicle widths.
That sets your parameters.
It's not very wide there.
You can't gain lots of space.
We think in an absolute ideal world
where you take things right down to them,
you might be able to squeeze about another half a meter
for pedestrians.
The question then becomes to build out half a meter
and all the cost of what that entails,
all the disruption, the traffic that entails,
Is it worth it and there are variants within that so that has been assessed
There's been no conclusion yet because we want to see and work with the design team that come on board and talk through some of
Those thoughts ideas how that may fit into what they're thinking
But there isn't there isn't a significant game that can be had unfortunately for for pedestrians or cyclists
Yes, thank you chair the consultation about the Falcon roads bridge has attracted a lot of interest
So can we run other high -pitchability consultations in the same way?
It depends on the nature of how we're approaching it.
But yes, generally speaking, when we have significant scale of investment, we do tend
to do quite significant amounts of consultation.
We've done a number of corridor schemes already, some which are out, some which are coming
up quite soon.
In this particular instance, I think it's generally more interest because of the element of the design aspect,
the London Festival architecture and the generation of the concepts, if you like, which is a bit more unique to this situation.
I don't want to sort of do my own world a doom and disservice, but don't get quite so excited about roads and pavements generally.
They tend to get more excited about art and design. And that's what's triggered a lot more interest.
I hate to say it because obviously I'm the clear opposite to that.
But I think it's fair to say...
About the place, aren't we thinking about the place?
Yeah, I think it's set a nice precedent
and the level of engagement has given us plenty of food for thought
about how we will look at other areas and other consultations.
Thank you.
And yeah, just to kind of...
If anyone happens to be listening about designs,
they're worth looking at online if anyone's not seen them yet.
And there are lots of...
I have seen some of the local Battersea sites
having some fierce debate with local residents
as to kind of which option is the best.
So, um, oh, it's clear, but no one, no one's, so Councillors, are there any before we, before
we start voting on our favorite options on, on the kind of bridge this evening, which
isn't part of the agenda, does anyone else have any questions on this paper?
No.
Okay.
Well, thank you, Councillor Hogg, for your introduction and on officers and Councillors
for your questions.
The committee is being asked on this item if they agree to support the recommendations
to the executive in paragraph two.
Please can I ask all those in favor
to please raise their hands.
And I'm happy to say it receives unanimous support
even if our choices for the final design do not,
but we can come back to that in a future meeting.
But thank you, Councillors.
So that kind of concludes our strategic planning element
of tonight's agenda.
And just as a reminder, I'm now going to rejig the agenda
slightly to move online for officer introduction
on the item 8 which is the Battersea Park area CPZ review.
8 Battersea Park Area CPZ Review: Outcome of Consultation (Paper No. 24-325)
I believe we have an officer online for an introduction.
Thank you, Jia. Yes, I can do a brief introduction.
So this report is on the outcome of a review
which included a consultation with residents within the,
and businesses, sorry, within the Battersea Park area control parking zone.
It's a zone that was introduced back in the mid -90s.
We've had a number of calls over a number of years to carry out a review of this particular zone.
And we did that this year during the summer.
We looked as well as looking at the actual operation of the zone with officers doing site visits.
We carried out a consultation by delivering letters, pointing residents and businesses to our online consultation document,
giving them the opportunity to provide their views about the operation of the zone and
whether they'd like to see any changes.
The report sets out the summary of the results to the key questions in appendix 1 .12 in the
the paper and the conclusion is that most residents that responded would like to see
changes to the operational days and hours of the zone and we're proposing that the zone
be changed so that it operates 9 a .m. until 8 p .m. seven days a week Monday to Sunday.
That's it. Great. Thank you very much for that.
Councillor Belton, you need this hand up?
It is of course largely my ward. I think I mean it the other way around.
My ward contains nothing much else than this zone,
is what I'm trying to say.
I'm interested in a couple of things.
When talking about the percentage turnout,
whether you included in that count
all the flats on the east side of the park,
that is between the Victoria Railway line
and Queenstown Road.
If you included all those,
I suspect there's one -to -one private parking
there in the basements. So I wouldn't be at all amazed if you've got a 0% response in
that particular bit. But did you or does someone can tell me?
Sorry, can you just tell me again which exactly which flats you're you're asking about between
I could reel off all the I think I could reel off all the names actually, but let's start
with a big one like Warwick Gardens, but all the ones on the east side of Queenstown Road
between Queenstown Road itself or between Battersea Park if you like and the Victoria
Railway line.
Thank you Councillor Belton for the clarification there.
None of those addresses fall within the Battersea Park area control parking zone.
So if you look at Appendix 1.
Yeah okay I get your point.
Sorry, I just thought it was so totally the whole ward.
I take your point, but it's all private parking there anyway.
So I was mistaken on that.
And presumably, it did include in your consultation all of the Ethelberger estate, did you?
Although, of course, much of that has council supplied parking as well.
And indeed, the big flats on the riverfront, the Foster's building, and so on, those sort of things places.
Indeed we did. The Ethelberger Estate properties that is within the boundary of the control parking zone.
And are you talking about Waterside Point off Ann Hall Road?
Yes, yes, yes.
Yes, they would have been included because they are within the boundary of the zone.
The only point I'm really making is that there's a very large number of properties there
with either council blocks with council provided car parking space or
blocks with large private underground
So the fact you've got a low turnout is not a surprise
That's the one that I'm getting around to say for those people who don't have those kind of facilities can I welcome this heartily?
It's about the major issue
Okay, so many people would say people living in Prince of Wales Drive don't have many issues
Well fair enough that may be true of lots of them, but the major issue is parking ever since the power station was opened
It's been a real pain for them
And so they'll be delighted and I'm really pleased to welcome it and tell them all next week that they're getting what they wanted
So thank you great. Oh, there's just one
Question sorry gone. I'm sure I knew the question in this because it goes on later in the evening
and at various odd times, is there a staffing issue here in terms of the meter control or we have,
we can make that work okay can we?
Would you like me to answer that Chairman?
Yes please.
We can meet the requirements for enforcing the zone during those hours.
Civil enforcement officers will be deployed to cover the proposed 9 a .m. to 8 p .m.
Thank you. Do I have any other questions on this paper?
No. Okay. Thank you very much.
So on this paper, the committee asked whether they agree to support the recommendations in paragraph 2 of the report.
All those in favor, please raise your hands.
and
Council of Elton's residents will be delighted to know that the CP said received you know, no support and and thank you
Committee for first switching on the gender and thank you. Mr. Lane, you know log off and enjoy your evening
So just as a reminder, I'm now going to go back to the agenda as was so we are now going to move on to
Item five on the quiet cycling routes and officers have been kind enough
5 Quiet Cycling Routes Update (Paper No. 24-322)
to print off some bigger versions of the map that appears in there because it's quite a small one.
So Mr. Tiddley has some A3 versions at the top of the table should anyone want them.
And his glamorous assistant is handing them out now.
over to you Mr. Tiddley when you're ready.
Yes, thank you chair.
David Tiddley, the head of transport strategy.
Committee earlier this year gave officers permission to consult on a number of quiet
cycle routes and just to briefly explain what these routes are is that they're
observed routes that cyclists use to make good progress between points
avoiding main modes and some of these routes are based on our observations
some on feedback from cyclists has been very useful for them and we've looked at
them and assessed them and tried to identify where by relatively minor
interventions we could develop quite a good network of cycle routes that are quiet and
safe and attractive and for all users. We went out to a first stage consultation which
was to effectively ascertain from our stakeholders and through an online consultation whether
people agreed with the broad alignments of the routes. So this was very much a consultation
asking people, you know, do you think this is the right route?
And some people would come back and say, well, we think the adjacent road is a better road
than this, et cetera, et cetera.
And what you have before you in the paper is the results of that first stage consultation,
which effectively makes us come to a conclusion that about half the routes are as currently
sort of aligned, suitable to take forward to a more detailed consultation where we will
undertake targeted consultation with the streets on the route and the people who
live on the route about the measures that we then proposed to introduce. So I
think with that just one of a point to make that there were a couple of other
broad comments that came back. Some people also suggested additional routes
which we're happy to take forward at later stage. Some people mentioned a need
to ensure that pedestrians were also considered on these routes, and that's something that
we will certainly take forward in the detailed design to ensure, for example, crossing points
are in the right location. And we also had a comment, as you'll see from looking at the
plan, that there's a relative lack of routes on the eastern side of the borough. And that's
primarily because most cycle activity on the eastern side of the borough does generally
Converge on the main roads because they're the roads that people generally use to make good progress between places of Queenstown Road
Battersea Bridge Road
That is a park road because of the nature of the railway and the river and main roads
They do tend to be the roads which most cyclists need and so in that those areas
They probably need to be a higher investment in a different type of solution and if more segregated
facilities on those on those sorts of roads
Thank you
Thank you, mr. Tiddly okay questions, okay, counselor asking counselor apps, please
Thank you very much. I think my ward has I don't know if it's the majority
But it certainly got 11 12 and 13 of them in my ward
the
The last thing I ever ever want to do is is
We need to think about all residents pedestrians car users local residents
I know that 11 and 12 are going to further consultation or 11 and going to further consultation
My two concern a lot of the comments that I had were around the pinch points
Specifically around Granard Avenue and Putney Park Lane
there's a lot of pedestrians dog walkers and
Part of lane is not a vehicle route at all that that area of it and there's a lot of concern over that
And secondly, around the Keswick Road and Clock Place Bridge,
which is another converging point,
which I think the next stage probably needs to be rerouted
and certainly considered.
But on the bridge itself,
I had two more administrative points as well,
which is what is the standard width needed
for a bridge or a lane that is shared by two ways,
by pedestrians and cyclists movement,
and does the bridge meet those standards?
Right, thank you, thank you, thank you, Councillor.
Just to pick up on those points,
as you'll notice from the plan showing 11 and 12,
that they both, they start in Roehampton,
they move towards Putney, and they will,
our expectation is they will converge into one route,
so all those lines on 11 and 12 will be,
Probably when they're implemented to be an either or and certainly we would expect that Dover Dover house
Road would be a move to not put any Park Lane obviously
we'll see what the detailed consultation comes back, but I suspect that would be the
Result of that in terms of the width and it really depends on
Really depends on the levels of usage and and and the distance over which something travels
so obviously you want a wider route if it's
It's a long route used by hundreds and hundreds of cyclists if it's a very short section of route
That is only you know, say 20 or 30 meters and isn't used by that many people you can probably bring that down
So I wouldn't want to give a precise answer to that. We'll look into it and investigate it as part of the detail
Thank you. Councillor Apps.
Yep, and thanks very much. You might not be surprised here. I want to talk about Battersea,
where as we've identified there's no no routes. I would actually say there's quite a few quiet routes.
I use a quiet route to get to the town hall on a daily basis.
I also have there's a quiet route which is to the north of Wandsworth Road,
Which somebody told me about which I've never quite managed to work out
I suspect though it might be complicated by the fact some of it might run through Lambeth as well because the Wandsworth Road
Is quite complex in the in the borough boundaries, so it would be good to know how you'd work with those
But also the new traffic lights on on culvert Road. Thank you very much mr. O 'Donnell and
to Henry to and
That is a very important and quiet route to Battersea Park that a lot of local residents use
Maybe a lot of people commute through Battersea,
but there are a lot of local people
who've got their own little quiet ways
that we'd like to share with other local residents.
So I suppose my question would be,
when can we see some future plans
for some quiet ways in Battersea,
so we can all benefit from some of the routes
that some of us have discovered over the years?
Thank you, Councillor.
I certainly think the plan should have shown
probably Fezzley Road,
because that's a clear, high -quality cycle route
along a relatively sort of segregated facility
It's very well used and that does go into Lambeth and requires some work by Lambeth then and also I probably say rather net Street
If you know that cut through there
That's very well used as well and that forms part of them a phase of works that we're looking at for improvements on Queenstown Road
A culvert place is interesting because there's always been this desire
Through the tunnel then through the middle section of the railway and then up on the bridge and over so again, it's very well used
whether we can design a cycle route to cycle quality standards through there or just accept that it's a good route for people to use but not call it a call out way, I'm not so sure.
But we'll have a look at this, yeah, thanks.
Councillor Mayorkas.
Just a few quick points before question.
The first is, just thanks to officers for this paper,
I don't underestimate the work of going through
nearly 1 ,700 comments, which when we talk about
responses to consultation is pretty impressive,
I'd say, for something that doesn't have artwork in it.
Just an observation, obviously the roots on the comments
have been kind of the most controversial
and have the most feedback.
I think my concern about delaying those,
I think it's sensible to say that decision now,
but my concern about delaying them in the long run
and in response to what Councilor Austin said
is that, for example, on Wandsworth Common,
lots of people on bikes cycle those routes anyway.
And so they are dangerous currently
because they are not wide enough.
And there is a wider question to be had over
does it make sense to actually widen them
so that the chance of collision is less,
and obviously then the risk is that you encourage
for people to use it and I appreciate that's a very delicate argument but I would just
as a word of caution for us all, people are going to cycle more, that's the way things
are going and if we don't make the provision then people will do it anyway and that could
be more dangerous.
And yeah just a question for the cabinet member, can we expect to see next steps on the routes
that weren't taken forward within this council term?
I hope it is in the paper.
Officers will definitely be looking at the routes that we decided would have to go a
bit more slowly to review very carefully all the comments because obviously there were
more reasons why those routes were potentially difficult to implement.
but it is very much the intention to keep looking at them and look at the very helpful
comments that residents have made and suggestions about how they could be changed or rerouted
so that they can still be accommodated.
I don't know whether Mr. Tidley might have anything to add to that.
I would just add that assuming the committee agree the paper tonight, then in the next
few days I'll recontact the Commons stakeholders specifically to ask them about meeting to
discuss the feedback and how we continue to take it forward and it doesn't just, as you
say, drift.
Thank you.
And yeah, and just to echo my thanks to officers because, yeah, this, it's taken, I can remember
these conversations starting when I was doing the cabinet role and actually those walkabouts
on the Commons started with kind of consulting with those stakeholders who use and look after
our Commons as well and really it's been a really great kind of process to engage with
them and listen to them along the way and take them along this journey as well. Do I
have any other hands, questions on this one? No, okay. Well thank you officers and thank
you for printing off those maps. I think they've been a helpful part of discussion I'm sure
be used. So the committee are asked on this paper whether they agree to support the recommendations.
In paragraph two, can I ask all those in favour to please raise their hands? One, two, three,
four, five, six in favour. Okay. All those against, please raise your hands. And any
abstentions two abstentions I am we had a counselor who voted twice on cancer
decision do you support it or abstain you support it okay you support okay
yes it's six in favor and two abstentions thank you very much and
thank you I just want to make that clear okay so yeah it's in the next item we
have is agenda item six is the ones as corporate plan actions and KPIs and
6 Wandsworth Corporate Plan Actions and KPIs Performance Monitoring (Paper No. 24-323)
Thank You miss O 'Connor, and I believe we have an officer online for any of the the finance based
Queries that if they come up on this one, so it's a kind of hope to you
Thank you. I'm Claire O 'Connor director of climate change
communications and policy for ones with council
The report that you have in front of you is the usual report that you receive twice a year
So it sets out the out turn at the end of quarter two against the key performance
indicators that you agreed as a committee back in June. It also sets
out the updates against the actions in the corporate plan that fall within the
remit of this committee. And again, those are the actions that you agreed
as a committee in in June. I'm sorry that their paper came out a day after
the agenda was dispatched. The quarter two is very close to dispatch for
transport committee on as we did last year. We needed just a few more days to
verify the data and I would rather give you accurate data that we'd looked at rather than give you changes at the committee.
I'm here with officers who lead on the services to take any questions you have.
Thank you very much for that introduction.
Do I have any comments or questions on this paper?
There is silence on this paper.
Do I take it that we would like to move to a vote immediately on that paper?
Okay.
I wasn't quite ready for that.
Oh, it's been noting for information, yeah.
Okay, so are we happy to agree that and take that as information?
Okay, thank you and thank you, Miss O 'Connor, probably the easiest rider I've seen on that paper.
So you took me by surprise because you do there, Asma.
So no, thank you very much.
7 School Streets Programme Review (Paper No. 24-324)
Next item on the agenda, we have the agenda item seven is the school streets program review.
So we are back to Mr. Tiddley on that one.
Yes, thank you, Chair.
This is just an update paper, just updating the committee on current status of school streets in the borough.
Members will probably not need me to tell you what a school street is, but I'm going to.
The school street is where we affect, where we close the road or roads near a school at
the children's arrival and departure times.
That helps improve safety for children.
It helps encourage them to think about walking and cycling to school and also reduces the
extent to which vehicles are polluting in the immediate vicinity of the school.
We've had several phases of the school streets which are detailed in the paper.
What we're proposing is to progress a further phase of school streets, but at the same time
we're also ongoing reviewing of the existing school streets to make sure that they are
operationally still work.
And some of them as you see in the paper we propose to make some just some improvements to the
Visibility of them and and some other measures. Thank you
Thank you very much
Thank you chair, yeah, obviously we'd love to welcome this paper and note that the
Target from the West has been reached one year early
just which is nice. I know that we are at the stage now where I guess the kind
of low -hanging fruit of school streets have been have been ticked off and we're
moving towards ones that are more difficult because they're on main roads
or they've had historic problems with with local community and I just wanted
to kind of open up a suggestion to the cross party where we might suggest that
for the next phase, we ask officers to do an audit
ward by ward, send the local councilors an audit
of their wards so they can see very clearly,
here's how many schools are in your ward,
here's how many have school streets,
here's any background of ones that have been rejected before
and then councilors have the opportunity to work
with their local community to revisit those plans
or to perhaps come up with or help the school
to visit them for the first time.
I know for example in my ward, there's a school that the local community refused it,
but it wasn't a clear enough picture I don't think, and that was the feedback from the
school.
So well, we as local councillors to put some time and effort into revisiting that, I think
we could probably get it over the line.
So yeah, open to feedback on that suggestion.
Yeah and I think, Councillor Hamilton, I'll allow you, but I think it's a welcome suggestion
Councillor Hill, because...
Yeah, certainly from a conservative group perspective, let's see what's before.
Thank you.
But yeah, I don't – cats are up, so you've got your hand up.
Thank you, and thank you for this paper on such an important topic.
I wanted to ask about, on page 147, you've got the program review and this point C, which
which is about enhanced signage at selective school streets.
This has been introduced into one of the local schools in my ward.
What I would like to know is how that will be monitored,
how you'll get feedback on how that's working.
So that we know that those signs are being affected.
It was good to see there was some evidence that they were being affected, so that's good news.
But how will that continue?
It generally forms, it depends on how the school street is enforced, but there tends
to be several ways of doing it. One is from feedback from the school itself. One is through
officers undertaking surveys, and we regularly undertake surveys at these schools. And at
those schools where there's AMPR cameras, then it's a clear, it's relatively easy to
then also match the numbers of penalty charge notices that are introduced that are issued
before or after these measures are put in.
So there are a few ways of doing it,
depending on how the school's been enforced.
Yeah, if I could just follow that up with supplementary.
I get a lot of feedback from local residents
about how the school street's working,
as well as from the school.
And sometimes, you know, when there's been,
like, massive infringements, like a lot of U -turns,
and, you know, people driving and doing three -point turns
in quite dangerous ways, I've heard that from residents
rather than from the school.
So I'd welcome residents being able to feedback sometimes as well because I think sometimes they they do have a good view on safety
Thank You cancer apps are there any more questions on this paper
No and and again, thank thank you to officers on on that one
And I think in as as councilman says it's great that we that we've met that target early
But the work doesn't stop here and and yeah, it's it's it's sorry
I just indicated, Councilor Yates would like to say something.
Yeah, I just wanted to welcome that suggestion from Councilor Mayorkas and I'm glad,
Councilor Hamilton, for your positive response to that because I think that is a really good idea.
And Mr. Tiddley, hopefully that's something that we can ask our very dedicated officers who lead on the school streets to take that forward.
Because I think obviously we face a situation that as we go forward with the scheme,
it becomes the schools that don't have the school streets
are the more difficult schools to,
where, by which to introduce these schemes.
So if we can have ward councilor buy in and support
helping to look at the challenges
and how they may be able to be solved,
I think that would be really helpful.
Great, thank you, Councillor Yates.
And I think there'll be broad agreement on that.
So moving to the vote on this,
the committee are asked whether they agree to support the recommendations in
paragraph 2 of the report can I ask all those in favor to please raise their
hands we have unanimous support for school streets so thank you councillors
and just as a reminder so that was agenda item 7 agenda item 8 we talked
earlier on the Battersea area CPZ review and so we now move to item 9 on the
9 Local Implementation Plan (Paper No. 24-326)
under the local implementation plan.
I think we're back to you Mr Tiddley.
Thank you chair.
So the local implementation plan is the council's transport plan setting out how the council
would help deliver the Mayor of London's transport strategy at the local level.
In order to help us deliver that local implementation plan we've put in a funding application to
transport for London annually for effectively for TFL to help fund measures that will help
us deliver the plan.
And what you have in front of you is a paper listing out those schemes and projects that
we propose to bid to transport for London for.
Just to briefly explain that there are several pots of funding here.
There's some funding which is allocated to boroughs on the basis of a formula.
And so it takes into account certain metrics.
And then it comes up with a number.
And that number is, for one's worth, is 1 .1 million pounds.
So we're relatively sure that there's 1 .1 million pounds available that we effectively bid up to that number for.
And that's set out in the early part of the appendix.
Then in addition to that, there are then other funding pots primarily for cycling schemes and for bus priority schemes,
where funding is released as you go, depending on development of the schemes,
and that they are worthy of continued transport for London funding.
So those are more discretionary pots which may or may not be awarded as we go.
What I would say as well is that nothing that the committee decides necessarily tonight
means that any of these schemes would necessarily be implemented because they would still require
a degree of consultation or design and would come back to the committee for approvals in
the normal way.
However, having said that, one thing that the local implementation plan funding is particularly
useful for is the funding of some council revenue programs, particularly the school
travel planning program and the road safety and cycle training programs because they cannot
those are programs that cannot be as easily funded through council budgets because the
council has increasingly put funding into transport improvements but it's primarily
through capital forms of funding and so the TFL funding despite being a relatively modest
sum these days is actually quite valuable in what it's able to fund. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Tiddley. I'll come first to Councillor Tiller, please.
Thank you, Chair. Yes, I'm very pleased to see a special of interest on bus priority
and rationalised bus stands. Could the officers tell us more about the plans, particularly
those for Longmead Road in Tooting? There's a couple of things going on there.
The council has a package of measures proposed to improve the tooting area, which Mr O 'Donnell and Mr Chung have been leading on.
But one thing that has repeatedly come up is the impact that that stand on at Longmead Road has on the local area.
Because it obviously has lots of buses turning and everything.
It really does detract from the quality of the environment there.
So, irrespective of this bid for potentially funding to help move stands, we're investigating
moving those stands and how we might be able to extend bus routes and take buses out of
that location and send them to other locations.
So for example, the Springfield development would be a good example of one that we might
be able to take from Tooting and take it into Springfield to help serve the new development.
That said, what we are also doing here is suggesting that if Transport for London does
have large amounts of money available for bus priority measures, then we could potentially
use quite a good sum of it in order to actually rearrange the bus services in the area and
remove the stand altogether.
Thank you. If you have any other questions on that paper.
Councillor Belton. I hadn't particularly thought about bus stands,
but now you mention it. What's the average shift length of time a bus driver is allowed
to drive without having a break? I don't know the answer. I'd need to check
that one because it does change quite regularly but they will normally in
terms of their standing a bus would normally spend about 10 minutes on a
stand as an average and supposed to also just to pick up on the point that the
Clapham Junction bus stands that you probably know very well Councillor ones
again which we would like to think about rearranging that that sort of mix of
stands of it about flower grant Road the outside the station masters house you
they could all probably work better than they currently do.
I was actually thinking about it from the driver's point of view.
If I had been driving for an hour and a half or something through London's traffic,
I can imagine one thing that I definitely want quite a lot along the bus stands.
And there don't seem to be any of those kind of facilities at, say,
about Flower Road or Elko Street or the Green Man,
unless you go, if you happen to be finishing your drive
on a 37 or something, unless we have agreements
with the pub, we wouldn't want to accuse the bus driver
of having a quick pint, would we?
But if he'd popped in there for his own comfort,
and what do we, I mean, it must be a really difficult
problem with some of the stands and what do we do for the drivers?
It can be and I think most stands have some rest welfare facilities. I certainly recall
at Bessborough Road in Roehampton was one that didn't and we addressed that relatively
recently. I'm not sure about Bairflower, I have to say I don't know what we've got there
but I'm pretty sure there's some facility there.
I have to check.
But one I was particularly interested in, Elko Street,
I never can remember whether it's Elko or Howie.
Is it Elko?
Out the back of the RCA building.
Yeah, the park gate.
Where there's always two or three 19 buses
and as you probably know, the pavement width
is about the width of a curb stone.
just the one you have to be quite young and agile to even get along at all
that's totally inadequate and fairly dangerous and lots of complaints about
it. Only that it probably lends more weight to our suggestion that we
should get some funding in order to help deliver improved bus landing
arrangements in the borough. That one there I think there was a
bus carriage there originally, wasn't it?
And they were effectively, I think, TFL or London buses,
whoever it was at that point, built on the bus carriage
and sent the buses into the street.
And we've had that problem ever since.
Okay, thank you very much for that.
Are there any other questions on this paper
or points to raise?
No?
Okay, I just welcome, and especially Mr. Tiddley's remarks
earlier for the money that we're able to use and to allocate certainly to road safety
and to keep those cycle training programmes going. I think they're things to be welcomed
and I know we get lots of feedback, positive feedback from those who do undertake those.
So thank you very much for that. So looking on, can I, sorry. The committee
asked whether they agree to support the recommendations to the Executive in paragraph three of the
paper passes unanimously. So thank you very much. We are speeding along nicely to the
10 Budget Monitoring: Second Quarter [2024/25] (Paper No. 24-349)
final paper on tonight's agenda, which is the Budget Monitoring Second Quarter Paper.
And welcome Mr Moylan to the table.
Good evening, committee. Thank you very much. My name is Alex Moylan. I'm the Head of Finance
and Performance within Environment Community Services Directorate. So this report sets
out the revenue budget position for the current financial year for services within the remit
of the Transport Committee.
This follows on from the update, the quarter one update that was taken to the previous
committee in October.
The forecast for our current out turn is somewhat in excess of the budget of 319 ,000 pounds,
which is an increase from our quarter one position.
This is set out in summary in paragraph two and in the table in appendix A. Part of this
was associated with assumptions for spatial planning, which have been covered earlier
in the agenda.
Other movements from quarter one are a slight increase in expectations for costs associated
with engineering, some central costs for the directorate within the finance and performance
section, and some agency costs associated with the management of the parking service,
leading to the small aggregate increase we have.
I'm very happy to have any questions that people may have on the agenda item.
Thank you very much.
And do we have any questions on this paper?
Silence all around.
Okay.
Are the committee happy that I moved to a vote on this?
Okay.
I can see some nods, so I'm going to just say thank you, Mr Moynihan, for that.
The committee are being asked whether they agree to note the report for
information as per paragraph one of the report. Can I ask that that's agreed for
information? Agreed. Okay, thank you very much councillors and thank you again Mr.
Moynihan. Please say that now concludes the business of the committee this
evening. Thank you for your attendance and I'll see you back here in February.
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