The Committee agreed to add a pre-decision scrutiny piece on the Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU) to the October meeting. It also decided to add an item to November’s meeting to scrutinise the Public Conveniences Modernisation Programme. The Committee reviewed progress on the Sustainable Transport Strategy and made recommendations on horse riding, trade parking permits and reporting dangerous driving.

Sustainable Transport Strategy

The Committee heard a report on the progress of the Sustainable Transport Strategy. The Council has completed consultations and is now working with consultants from NRP to develop the strategy, which aims to make travelling in Westminster more sustainable.

The Committee heard from Linda Kulahcigil, a transport planner from NRP who has been working with the Council to develop the evidence base for the strategy.

The Committee raised concerns about the Council's relationship with Transport for London (TfL) and its ability to influence plans outside of its control. In particular, it was concerned about the safety of pedestrians and cyclists at the Victoria Bus Station.

“Members suggested that progress here will be fundamental to the Council achieving its targets and it is reliant on external partners.”

The Committee wanted to know how the Council would measure the success of initiatives like 'school streets' and 'liveable streets', and whether these initiatives were displacing issues rather than resolving them. The Committee also wanted to know how the strategy would address the needs of all road users and how the Council would ensure that the strategy was dynamic and could respond to changing environments and trends.

The Committee was concerned about the impact of freight and delivery vehicles on congestion, carbon footprint, and air quality. They wanted to know whether the Council had considered placing freight below car sharing on the road user hierarchy and whether it had considered the relative impact of freight and deliveries. It was also concerned about the increase in cycling casualties in recent years and requested a breakdown of road safety and cycling casualty data by ward.

“Members asked how pollution from essential freight and deliveries could be offset and whether consideration could be given to varying degree of impact.”

The Committee wanted to know how the Council would ensure that electric vehicle charging points could also be used to charge mobility scooters and whether the Council would consider allowing mobility scooters to be stored in cycle hangars. It also wanted to know if the Council had considered banning e-bikes entirely.

“Members asked whether it was truly possible to ban e-bikes entirely, as has been threatened by other local authorities.”

The Committee made a number of recommendations:

• It recommended that the Council consider incorporating horse riding into the proposed road user hierarchy.
• It recommended that the Council continue to use the Commonplace platform to obtain resident insight into their lived experiences of road safety.
• It recommended that the Council further promote its trade parking permit scheme.

The Committee asked for a briefing on play streets, an outline of the impact of initiatives such as school streets, play streets and public realm improvements, a breakdown of road safety and cycling casualty data by ward, an update from TfL on their programme for step-free access at tube stations in Westminster, and an update on the Council’s position regarding electric mobility scooter charging. It also requested that it review the implementation plan when it is developed.

Public Conveniences Modernisation Programme

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, the Cabinet Member for City Management and Air Quality, presented the Committee with a briefing note about the Public Conveniences Modernisation Programme. The note explains that all of the automatic public conveniences in the city will be replaced with new ones. The Council has also installed card readers at all of the chargeable public conveniences and this has led to an increase in usage. Three of the four public conveniences in residential areas have also been refreshed.

Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU)

The Committee discussed the upcoming extraordinary meeting, scheduled on the 31st of October, about the Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU).