Agenda, decisions and minutes

Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 13 September be agreed as an accurate record, subject to a minor amendment as follows: the full title of the Intercultural Cities report mentioned at the last meeting was ‘Knowing Lewisham’.

1.1      Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 13 September be agreed as an accurate record, subject to a minor amendment as follows: the full title of the Intercultural Cities report mentioned at the last meeting was ‘Knowing Lewisham’.

2.1 There were none.

There are none.

3.1 There were none.

Resolved: that the report be noted.

4.1      David Austin (Head of Corporate Resources) introduced the report, the following key points were noted:

·         Local Government was on a journey of austerity that started in 2010 and would continue until at least 2020 (and likely into the mid-2020s).

·         There were an unusual number of uncertainties, pressures and risks in planning the Council’s future finances. There had been a number of changes (and further changes were anticipated) around council tax and the social care precept.

·         The Council was still awaiting additional information about the funding review, it was anticipated that there would be further changes to the new homes bonus.

·         There was a possibility that there would be changes to the Better Care Fund.

·         There were also upcoming changes to the pooling of business rates in London, as well as potential longer term changes to demographics and Lewisham’s potential future tax base.

·         The Council’s target for savings in 2018/19 was £22m, which included £5m of savings from 2017/18 that had not been achieved.

·         It was proving increasingly challenging to deliver savings.

·         The Council was currently forecasting £13m of overspend for 2017/18, including £7m of unachieved savings.

·         Savings that had been agreed were taking longer to deliver.

·         It was felt that the strategic challenge set by the Lewisham Future Programme was correct but the current focus was on delivering savings that had already been identified.

·         Reserves would need to be used for the end of year overspend, as well as the unachieved savings target. This figure was currently in the region of £30m.

4.2      David Austin responded to questions from the Committee, the following key points were noted:

·         The £30m that would be taken from reserves was made up of £13m overspend from 2017/18 and the shortfall in the savings for 2018/19.

·         The current level of reserves was £149m. £79m was committed. The other £70m had some commitments against it – but it was earmarked for certain projects that would have to be cancelled if the level of savings required next year was not achieved.

·         There were very few areas of the Council that were not trying to make savings.

·         The biggest single area of overspending was children’s services, which represented £7m of the existing £13m overspend. £1m of the overspend in children’s services was as a result of unachieved savings.

·         Some additional spending was also required in children’s services following the Ofsted inspection. Over time the changes would produce efficiencies.

·         Another area that was overspending was the environment division. The delay in introducing the fortnightly collections and changes necessary to improve fleet vehicles had created a £1m overspend.

·         Adult services also had some unachieved savings but they were in a better financial positon than children’s services because of the nationally recognised pressure on adults’ services and the additional funding that had been made available.

·         Changes to IT were producing efficiency to officers’ work. Better data was also available about the impact of decisions.

·         There were also efficiencies being found through IT for in the customer facing aspects of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Resolved: that the report be noted.

5.1      Nick Harvey (Cycling Programme Manager) introduced the update. The following key points were noted:

·         The second draft cycling strategy was consulted on in October, it was based on comments from key stakeholders – including the select committee and Lewisham Cyclists.

·         There were 53 individual responses to the consultation. 80% of the respondents were Lewisham residents and 85% of respondents were cyclists or cycled at least once a week. 86% of the respondents said that the strategy had clear aims and 75% agreed that these were the right aims. 55% of respondents found the strategy easy or very easy to understand a further 36% found it neither easy nor difficult.

·         There were a number of suggestions for changes to the strategy, including: concern about the lack of a delivery plan (which would be included in the Local Infrastructure Plan annual submission); the identification of funding for the different elements of the delivery of the strategy (more information would be included in the finalised version for the strategy); the standards for new infrastructure (the London design standards would be used); disability cycling and the use of non-traditional cycles (further information about this would also be included in the finalised strategy – and all new infrastructure schemes would give consideration to non-traditional cycles); the general maintenance and condition of the roadway (this fell down the list of current concerns for highways inspectors, changes would be made to improve the way that the Council dealt with repairs, missing signage and alternative arrangements during traffic diversions).

5.2      Nick Harvey responded to questions from the Committee, the following key points were noted:

·         There were a number of sustainable bike days and bike to work days in the UK. The Council’s road safety team were responsible for promoting these activities locally.

·         There were proposals to bring ‘dockless bikes’ (as opposed to the Mayor of London’s bikes, which were checked in and checked out at docking stations) to Lewisham.

·         There was a joint partnership with Southwark Council to supply and deliver bike hangers in Lewisham. Initially it was considered that it would be straightforward to deliver new hangers but it was actually very complicated.

·         A new tender for delivering bike hangers was currently being finalised and would be delivered in the near future.

·         Consultation for all new controlled parking zones would include options for electric charging points and bike hangers.

·         The Council received regular complaints about inconsiderate cycling. Officers had commissioned an awareness campaign in one part of the borough to encourage people to cycle more considerately.

·         Work was being carried out to ensure that dockless cycle services were managed effectively in future.

·         The design standards for cycle superhighways were implemented to encourage considerate cycling. Cycle superhighway four (due to be constructed across the north of the borough) would have a high level of design quality.

·         There was currently a bid in place for funding to create a new greenway in the north of the borough.

·         Officers would consider how cycling infrastructure could be improved in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Resolved: The Committee believes that the joint oversight of theatre operations and plans for its future should be brought under the remit of a single senior manager. The Committee has been encouraged by the Catford programme team’s accomplishments and abilities and as such, the Committee believes that serious consideration should be given to moving future management and forward planning for the theatre under the remit of the capital programmes division.

6.1      Kplom Lotsu (Service Group Manager, Capital Programmes) introduced the report, the following key points were noted:

·         The last update to the Committee (in September) focused on the realignment of the South Circular, this update provided additional details about the masterplanning process as well as the engagement, meanwhile use and the Broadway theatre. The programme team would welcome comments from the Committee about the masterplanning process.

·         Transport for London (TfL) were working on plans for the relocation of the south circular (A205) and had developed an initial timeline: work on feasibility would take place up until September 2018; concept design work until March 2019 and detailed design until February 2020 with a view to the road move happening in 2021. The expectation was that work would take place moving the road for six to nine months.

·         Officers at TfL were also submitting a bid for funding for the next stage of development, the Council would find out in the next week or two whether this had been successful.

6.2      Deborah Efemini (Capital Project Manager) introduced an update on the engagement process, the following key points were noted:

·         ‘Team Catford’ was a specialist team of consultants who were purposely separate from the Council. It was hoped that this separation would enable people to better relate to the team.

·         The majority of the people who made up the engagement team lived in Catford.

·         The engagement officially started in March 2017.

·         In the next stage of the consultation the team would feedback what people had been saying.

·         There had been some concerns about the online focus of the Commonplace platform – but people were also proactively coming to engagement monthly engagement meetings to discuss their thoughts about the future of Catford in person.

·         Fliers about the engagement would be delivered to all homes in Catford.

·         Team Catford was also measuring sentiment on social media about Catford.

·         There were a number of place making activities happening, including the painting of murals around the town centre and the refurbishment of the Catford dog track signage as well as plans for a ‘wall of fame’ of the top 20 most famous people from Catford.

·         The Catford Broadway monthly market and the Catford Canteen (originally started in 2015 as part of the Mayor of London’s outer London fund) would be revived.

6.3      Kplom Lotsu, Deborah Efemini, Jessie Lea and Sarah Walsh responded to questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·         A heritage lottery bid was going to be submitted by the programme team alongside officers in the Council’s culture division. The submission of the bid hinged on a conservation management plan being completed, this was being worked on at present.

·         The conservation and management plan would set out how the theatre should physically be maintained and managed as well as how it should be understood culturally and historically. The plan would also help to set out options for a sustainable future for the theatre.

·         Until the conservation management plan was finished a bid could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Resolved: The Committee noted the report from officers and endorsed the efforts to ensure that the Bakerloo line was extended into Lewisham to Catford and beyond.

7.1      Resolved: The Committee noted the report from officers and endorsed the efforts to ensure that the Bakerloo line was extended into Lewisham to Catford and beyond.

Resolved: that the report be noted and that the revised work programme for the meeting on 14 December be agreed.

8.1      The Committee discussed the work programme for its meeting on 14 December. The following key points were noted:

·         The planning update on section 106 and CIL should include information about the amount of funds clawed back from developers who had made increased profits on developments and therefore had a greater liability under planning obligations.

·         Information should be included about the mechanism for spending section 106 and CIL funds.

·         An item would be added to the agenda on the Catford regeneration – in order to update on the next steps for the housing zone.

·         An update on waste and recycling would be included on the agenda for January.

8.2      Resolved: that the report be noted and that the revised work programme for the meeting on 14 December be agreed.

Resolved: that the Committee’s views under item six be referred to Mayor and Cabinet.

9.1      Resolved: that the Committee’s views under item six be referred to Mayor and Cabinet.