Agenda, decisions and minutes

Resolved: that Councillor Curran be confirmed as Chair and Councillor Codd be confirmed as Vice-Chair of the Sustainable Development Select Committee.

1.1  Timothy Andrew (Scrutiny Manager) invited the Committee to confirm Councillor Liam Curran as Chair of the Committee and Councillor Patrick Codd as Vice-Chair of the Committee.

1.2 Resolved: that Councillor Curran be confirmed as Chair and Councillor Codd be confirmed as Vice-Chair of the Sustainable Development Select Committee.

Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2018 be agreed as an accurate record.

2.1 Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2018 be agreed as an accurate record.

3.1  Councillor James-J Walsh declared a non-prejudicial interest in relation to item six as a contributor towards the Supersets crowdfunding campaign.

3.2  Councillor Louise Krupski declared a non-prejudicial interest in relation to item six as a contributor towards the Supersets crowdfunding campaign.

There are none.

4.1  There were none. The Chair noted that responses to Committee referrals on Lewisham’s vision for rail, work & skills and home energy conservation would be expected in the autumn.

Resolved: that items on the regeneration of Catford and the development of the local plan be included at every meeting of the Committee. That items considered as low priority should be added to the agenda only as information items. That the Committee’s review for 2018-19 would focus on ‘sustainable place shaping’ in order to assist members with their role in the development of the new Lewisham local plan.

5.1  This item was considered in two parts. Firstly, at the beginning of the meeting, the Chair invited Helena Russell and Ruth Jarvis of the ‘Build the Lenox’ project to provide an update on their work. They gave a short presentation (included with the minutes) and welcomed the opportunity to return to the Committee in future to provide further updates as the project progressed. Members agreed that they would make individual representations to Lewisham’s Head of Planning and the Mayor of Lewisham in support of the project.

5.2  Secondly, at the end of the meeting, the Committee discussed its annual work programme. The following key points were noted:

·         Updates on Catford would be included at every meeting.

·         There would be an item on pubs at the October meeting – that would also include information about the importance of the night time economy.

·         The Committee’s in-depth review would be on ‘sustainable place shaping’ and would explore best practice and practical options for the development of local plans. In addition, the Committee would request a single page update on the development of the local plan at every meeting.

·         An item on Beckenham Place Park would be included on the work programme for the December meeting.

·         The January item on work and skills would include a broader discussion about the work of the Council’s economy and partnerships team to include information about apprenticeships and support for local businesses.

·         That links between the committee’s work programme and the new administration’s manifesto commitments be made more explicit.

·         Further consideration would be given to a future review of the strategic integration of plans for walking, cycling and improving air quality.

·         A briefing would be provided about the policy for including relatives at funeral services when families were unable to pay crematorium charges. This would include a comparison of charges with neighbouring boroughs.

5.3  Resolved: that items on the regeneration of Catford and the development of the local plan be included at every meeting of the Committee. That items considered as low priority should be added to the agenda only as information items. That the Committee’s review for 2018-19 would focus on ‘sustainable place shaping’ in order to assist members with their role in the development of the new Lewisham local plan.

Resolved: that the report be noted. It was also agreed that updates on Catford would be considered at every meeting.

6.1  Kplom Lotsu (SGM, Capital Programmes), Deborah Efemini (Project Manager, Capital Programmes) and Jessie Lea (Senior Programme Manager) introduced the report, the following key points were noted:

·         The decision had been taken by Mayor and Cabinet to appoint a master planner for Catford.

·         The masterplan would set out a framework to articulate the Council’s vision for Catford – establishing the principles about the types of development that would be suitable in different parts of the town centre.

·         Development of the plan would take a year, ending in May 2019. It was hoped that the Committee would be involved throughout the process.

·         ‘Team Catford’ was still using the Commonplace platform to engage with local people. The ‘Commonplace’ for Catford had reached 1600 comments.

·         In the past three months, work had taken place to organise the comments on Commonplace to assist the masterplanners.

·         The team had held a number of recent events and roadshows to increase the scope of the engagement.

·         Team Catford had taken on a vacant unit on the Broadway to support the engagement and promote Catford.

·         Activities and events were planned over the summer – including film showings and activities for children, which would incorporate interventions on ‘holiday hunger’ - distributing food as part of the events for children who might otherwise go hungry.

·         Engagement would continue throughout the masterplanning process.

·         Transport for London (TfL) were progressing with designs for the relocation of the south circular. A number of surveys had been carried out to inform the designs.

·         TfL would also work with the masterplanners.

·         The team had coordinated a group of professional stakeholders to inform the work on the realignment of the road.

·         Supersets had taken on the Thomas Lane depot and had a number of community development activities planned.

·         A planning application had been submitted for 17-18 Catford Broadway.

·         A number of other developments and planning applications were pending for the town centre, which would be decided on over the course of the next few months.

6.2  Liz Dart (Head of Culture and Community Development) introduced the update on the Broadway theatre, the following key points were noted:

·         A great deal of information was included in the report (and appendices).

·         There were some ambitious ideas in the options appraisal of the theatre, including some ideas that would be ‘nice to have’ rather than essential.

·         Total cost of the proposed works was £20m.

·         Some of the ideas tied in with plans for the regeneration of the town centre – including potential options for the development of a ‘west wing’ to the theatre when the civic suite was redeveloped. This proposal was designed to solve the long term issues of access to the theatre.

·         Further work would take place with the masterplanners for Catford to help determine the feasibility of future plans.

·         Officers had also been working with the Theatre Trust – to provide advice on preservation of the historic features of the theatre. The Trust had reviewed the options appraisal, conservation management plan and heritage assessment.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Resolved: that officers would carry out a desk top review of the benefits of green spaces on air quality. It was also agreed that the Committee would refer its views to Mayor and Cabinet as follows –

·The Committee believes that officers should explore the options for encouraging the uptake of the Lewisham air app – this could include an internal communications campaign at the Council and the widespread automatic download of the app on to Lewisham managed devices.

·The Committee also believes that the Council should review the options for encouraging its public sector partners to take up the Lewisham air app.

·It was noted that Lewisham’s Clean Air Champion intends to visit local assembly meetings and the Committee recommends that this is endorsed and supported by Mayor and Cabinet and the relevant officers.

·The Committee recommends that consideration be given to a ‘dirty diesel’ tariff for the most polluting vehicles. This could include higher charges for parking and residential permits.

7.1  Christopher Howard (Senior Environmental Protection Officer) and Alexandra Crush (Transport Policy and Development Manager) introduced an update on the implementation of the air quality action plan and on the low emission vehicle charging strategy consultation, the following key points were noted:

·         A comprehensive list of activity and actions had been provided in the report to the Committee.

·         A great deal of progress had been made on the air quality action plan, in line with the requirements of the Greater London Authority (GLA).

·         Work had taken place with the Council’s previous and current air quality champions.

·         A schools air quality award had been launched, Paddy Swift had been appointed to work with schools to develop sustainable travel plans.

·         The Council had joined a consortium of boroughs to form an ‘anti-idling’ campaign network.

·         A number of events to share information about air quality had been held. This included a conference to launch the new ‘Lewisham air’ mobile app.

·         Lewisham was due to be the location of a new air quality ‘supersite’ – which would be one of only three in the country.

·         The number of diffusion tubes (for air quality monitoring) across the borough had been increased.

·         The Council had been successful in a bid to government for the development of two new ‘clean air villages’ in the borough, which would engage with business to lower their emissions. The focus would be on reducing pollution from deliveries.

·         The air quality audits offered by the GLA were taken up by three Lewisham schools. These schools were part of 50 schools audited across London. Schools were selected in order to ensure a coverage across as many London boroughs as possible, where legal limit levels were being exceeded and had cooperation of the school themselves but were not necessarily the 50 worse polluted schools in London.

·         The report included information about the Council’s response to the Mayor of London about the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone.

·         The Council’s position was that the low emission zone should cover the whole of Greater London.

·         A detailed response was awaited from the GLA to question from officers about the likely impact of the zone on the emissions in the borough.

·         The consultation on the low emission vehicle charging strategy would run until 13 August. Work would take place to analyse responses in order to finalise the strategy by the end of the year.

·         The intention was to have all residents within 500m of a charging point by 2020, which was an ambitious target.

·         There were four key objectives in the strategy, the first related to target markets for charging through the selection of key locations for charging points, the second was related to the uptake of grants, funding and income, thirdly, the strategy acknowledged the need to keep apace with technological developments and finally it considered the policy and public engagement options for supporting the uptake of electric vehicles.

·         The strategy also considered the options for infrastructure – via lamp columns; and two kinds of dedicated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.1       Information only item

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