Westminster to set up design review panel

The City of Westminster is preparing to establish a design review panel and launch a partial review of the city plan, as part of a package of town planning initiatives. Westminster’s finance, planning and economic development policy and scrutiny committee will be briefed this evening (22 September), with an update from councillor and cabinet member for planning and economic development Geoff Barraclough. Preparatory work on setting up the design review panel for the borough has already begun. The panel, due to be in place early next year, aims to provide independent and expert advice on new development. Westminster has also committed to a partial review of its city plan to meet with guidelines from the new administration with initial consultation, formally known as regulation 18, set to launch next month. Other key initiatives to come out of the meeting include specific guides for how to retrofit buildings for better energy efficiency with a specialised historic retrofit taskforce, and a revised boundary for central activity zones covering key commercial areas in line with article 4. The latter follows direction from the secretary of state to cover “as small a geographic area as possible”. Westminster aims to bring in the new legislation in December this year. In a council document, Barraclough said £10m of funds will be spent on the renewal of high streets including Harrow Road, Paddington and Pimlico. He added that the economy team is working with “place-shaping” colleagues to develop proposals, which are expected to include a 15-minute city approach to supporting high streets. Officers will additionally engage with Network Rail and other partners to discuss next steps for setting out a concept masterplan for Victoria station and its surrounding areas. Westminster is also committing to revising the Oxford Street district programme. To send feedback, e-mail chante.bohitige@eg.co.uk or tweet @bohitige