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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Ola Adeoye 

Items
No. Item

147.

Introductions

Minutes:

Councillor Klute welcomed everyone to the meeting. Members of the Committee and officers introduced themselves and the Chair outlined the procedures for the meeting.

148.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Jenny Kay, Marian Spall and John Woolf.

149.

Declarations of Substitute Members

Minutes:

Councillor Nick Wayne substituted for Councillor John Woolf.

150.

Declarations of Interest

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a)  Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)    Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of  your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c)    Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works,    between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d)     Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e)     Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)      Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g)    Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

Minutes:

Councillor David Poyser declared that he had studied for a post graduate certificate at City University in the 1970s.

151.

Order of Business pdf icon PDF 42 KB

Minutes:

The order of business would be as set out on the agenda.

152.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 80 KB

Minutes:

 

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2020 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

153.

2-7 Clerkenwell Green London EC1R 0DE pdf icon PDF 11 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Demolition of the existing building and redevelopment of the site to provide a six storey (plus basement) office building (use class B1a) involving 3,021sqm of commercial floorspace including 446sqm (NIA) of flexible space (use class A1/A2/A3/B1/D1) on part of the ground floor and basement; provision of refuse storage, cycle storage and plant; and re-location of the substation from ground to basement level.

 

(Planning application number: P2019/2791/FUL)

 

In the discussion the following points were made:

·       The Planning Officer noted two updates required as follows: (a) to paragraph 7.1 of page 17 of the agenda pack, as four objections had been received, rather than the three stated in the report and (b) Condition 10 on page 52 of the agenda pack, by the inclusion of the following: “including the proposed windows closest to 9 Clerkenwell Green at 3rd and 4th floor level"(to be obscured)

·       A member of the Committee noted that, as part of the proposal “Sandy coloured brick is proposed as the main material for the façade and a light grey glazed brick for the ground floor” (paragraph 5.4 of the report) and, given that this was an iconic area, queried how the new building would look compared to those around it?   The Planning Officer replied that the site was bordered on one side by brick-built mixed use residential/commercial buildings, a 5-storey residential building with commercial use on the ground floor. The buildings on Clerkenwell Green were generally finer grain Victorian or pre-Victorian buildings in commercial and office use, but there were larger early 20th century warehouse buildings in Aylesbury Street.  The proposed building offered a transition between the two and was considered to be a compromise.  The original proposal had included a copper roof, but this had now been revised to red brick.

·       A member of the Committee asked whether the basement excavation would be affected by underground water. The Planning Officer stated that the development was not in a flood risk zone in which flooding was considered to be a risk.  “Small scale” in paragraph 10.136 referred to relative to the site size.  A Basement Impact Assessment had been submitted. There was an existing basement.

·       A member of the Committee noted that the red bricks and light buff bricks needed good contextualisation. The Planning Officer noted that the Design and Conservation Team were happy with the building materials.

·       A member of the Committee queried why there was a roof terrace on an office block. A question was also asked about water collection from the roof and whether it became stagnant. The Planning Officer replied that this was covered by Condition 7, which dealt with the drainage strategy for a sustainable urban drainage system, which would have to be approved by the Council.

·       One of the objectors, who lived next to the site, referred to the obscured windows at the rear of the building which looked into his living room. He asked whether the Committee agreed that those windows should be obscured?  ...  view the full minutes text for item 153.

154.

33 Finsbury Square London EC2A 1BB pdf icon PDF 6 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Application for continued use of the building as a Non-Residential Institution (use Class D1) to be personal to City University and successor bodies (and to revert to B1 [Business] in the event of the cessation of the University's use

(Planning application number: P2019/3742/FUL)

 

In the discussion the following points were made:

·       The Planning Officer highlighted an amendment required to line 2 of Condition 3 on page 87 of the agenda pack, by the addition of a comma and the words “of London” after the words “City University”  to read “City, University of London”

·       The Planning Officer also proposed an amendment to the planning obligations on page 86 of the agenda pack, Recommendation A to read as follows: “Approval recommended (consent personal to City, University of London), subject to conditions and the satisfactory conclusion of the legal agreement to secure the following planning obligations and in consultation with the Chair of the Planning Committee:

·       A detailed plan, updated on a biannual basis that sets out quantifiable education, training and employment opportunities, as well as support for small businesses, ring-fenced for Borough small businesses and residents from the Council’s priority groups and aligned with the councils existing services and programmes (including the Council’s Inclusive Economy Team) together with an annual planning and quarterly monitoring meeting.

·       Submission and agreement of a Green Performance Plan.

·       Submission and agreement of a framework Travel Plan with set targets.”

 

·       A member of the Committee suggested that it would be important to maintain reference to “social and economic benefits” in (revised) bullet point 1 of Recommendation A above and the Planning Officer suggested that it be incorporated into the planning obligations above and that a version be included in the S106 Statement.

·       A member of the Committee suggested that the second bullet point in the planning obligations was too vague “Submission and agreement of a Green Performance Plan” and queried what it would contain.  The Planning Officer stated that this would need to be assessed and agreed by the Council. Advice and a recommended framework was contained in the Environmental Design SPD.

·       Mr Graham Oliver, representing the City University of London Federation, stated that the use would be complementary to the economy of the area and would support the central London economy. It was an exciting opportunity. There had been no objections to the proposals. With reference to the S106 agreement, they had been satisfied with the original wording on benefits and would need to review the new wording to ensure there was sufficient flexibility.

·       The Chair emphasised the need for further work on the Social and Economic Statement.  It would be important to have a statement with measurable outcomes.  The applicants were asking the Council to set aside planning policy, so the onus was on them to provide exceptional reasons in the Social and Economic Statement to justify this, for example by the inclusion of additional education programmes.

·       In response to a question from the Chair as to whether the applicant was prepared to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 154.