Agenda item

The Committee RESOLVED to approve the Authority Monitoring Report FY2018 as set out in Appendix 1 to the Report.

Katie Glasgow introduced the report.

Housing  The Committee asked for clarification on the definition of hotels and hostels and queried their aggregation as hostels seemed to refer to the tourist/backpacking hostel as opposed to housing hostels but it was ambiguous.  Katie Glasgow said that this could be amended to make the differentiation clear.

Councillor Hanson asked for clarification around prioritising C3 housing in the new borough wide Local Plan.  Katie Glasgow said that the Local Plan looked at population growth and needs across the borough.  In recognition of this, applicants would need to justify how their proposals met housing need in the borough.  Councillor Hanson asked for clarification on whether affordable housing could be sought on non-conventional housing.  Katie Glasgow advised that the new London Plan policies sought affordable housing on non-conventional housing as did the new Local Plan

Councillor Williams noted that the monitoring report was retrospective and asked how projections were considered.  Katie Glasgow said that the report looked at delivery to monitor how the need for hotels was being met in the borough but the pipeline was also considered.  Applicants would be asked to justify their proposals and look at other options as the need in the borough may well have been met.

Councillor McMahon asked whether tenure was captured which showed for example, conversions of larger properties into smaller flats as he was concerned about the potential loss of larger family homes.  Katie Glasgow confirmed that tenure was captured and this could be further drawn out in future reports.

Councillor Fajana-Thomas noted with some surprise the increase in retail space given many high street businesses seemed to be closing.  She also asked if there was a list of buildings on the risk register and could the Committee have sight of this.

Councillor Stops said that within Hackney, hotel need had been met so the Council was resisting new hotels.  He then asked whether the report captured information from the LLDC regarding Hackney Wick.  He also commented that Hackney managed car free developments well but the Hackney approach was different from the LLDC but their data fed through into Hackney's which skewed Hackney's figures.  It was important to separate this in terms of reporting.

Katie Glasgow said that the LLDC information did feed into Hackney's trend data and officers would see if the data could be interrogated in further detail for next year's AMR.  Councillor Snell said that this information needed to be separated out by borough as the LLDC information was an overall target and not specific to Hackney.

Councillor Chauhan asked if there was liaison between commercial and residential needs.  Katie Glasgow said that areas were designated through policy priorities.  Employment growth across the borough was a priority and there were significant office needs going forward.  Hackney however actively promoted mixed use tenures as housing was also a pressing need in the borough.

Retail and Town Centres  Councillor Coban asked for clarification on mixed use in Hackney Central and cited Hackney Walk.  He also asked whether Hackney was encouraging mixed used.  Katie Glasgow said that Hackney Central may see gains in A3 classifications and in respect of Hackney Walk which fell just outside the boundary of Hackney Central, a section of the Walk had been designated a priority employment area.

Councillor Stops said that given the general trend in retail across the country was one of collapse, it was important to ensure more flexible use.  Councillor Hanson said that buildings which had been designated shops could be changed to, for example, hairdressing shops but this currently would need planning permission for change of use.  Councillor Snell commented that Hackney's Article 4 directions were good.

Katie Glasgow said that policy thresholds were taken into consideration to ensure Hackney protected its needs and the masterplans proved very helpful in considering this.

Communities, Culture, Education and Health  Councillor McMahon asked whether the s106 contributions were used to offset carbon from specific schemes.  Georgina Barretta said that carbon offsetting opportunities would be considered once there were significant contributions. Councillor Webb commented that the issue of carbon offsetting would not disappear so this should be prioritised.

Transport  Councillor Webb queried the number of interchanges at Hackney Wick over ground station given that there was in fact no interchange available here.   The Committee agreed that this must be an error in the TFL data which informed the AMR.

Heritage and Design  The Committee noted that buildings on the at risk register numbered 29 but that buildings came on to the list and came off the list.  The list would be circulated to all members of the Committee.

Planning Performance  The Committee congratulated the Planning Sub-Committee on its performance.  Councillor McMahon asked about progress with the new planning computer systems.  Katie Glasgow said that work continued and a new system was being introduced shortly.

The Committee RESOLVED to approve the Authority Monitoring Report FY2018 as set out in Appendix 1 to the Report.