The Executive Director for Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report on the commencement of the new process for considering additions to the List of Locally Important Buildings (known as the Local List).  Appended to the report were:

• Appendix 1 - Equality Impact Assessment
• Appendix 2 – Details of the new Local Listing process

The report explained that the previous process for making additions to the list, in place since February 2013, had been largely an internal process handled by Council officers.  Planning Applications Committee on 2nd December 2020 had recognised the need to improve this process to enable greater community input and democratic scrutiny and had endorsed Option 2 of three options for how a new process should be approached, which involved the Committee making a final decision on nominations after a recommendation by the Conservation and Urban Design Officer (Minute 56 refers).  The Committee had also delegated the setting up and running of this process to the Deputy Director for Planning, Transport and Regulatory Services.

The new process for additions to the Local List, set out in Appendix 2, had been finalised in May 2021 and had been in operation since then, but no new nominations had been received until October 2021.  The process involved consultations being sent out upon receipt of the nomination, followed by a recommendation being made by the Conservation and Urban Design Officer to the Committee for it to make the final decision.

Consultations lasted for a period of 28 days, and the following were consulted:

• Landowner
• Ward Councillors
• Reading Conservation Area Advisory Committee
• Reading Civic Society
• Any community organisations relevant to the location of the building, or to its historic/cultural significance.

The process of working through the list of buildings that had been nominated for inclusion on the list had started, and consultations on the following six buildings had been sent out on 7 and 8 October 2021:

• 84 Broad Street;
• 85-88 Broad Street;
• Attwell’s Drinking Fountain, Thames Side Promenade;
• Huntley and Palmers Social Club, Kings Road;
• Kings Road Garden; and
• Palmer Park Pavilion and associated building.

Reports on two of these buildings were brought to the current meeting (Minutes 77 and 78 refer) and officers would continue to work through the remaining buildings already nominated and would respond to new requests as they were received.

The report also addressed the issue of when Planning Applications Committee members should avoid taking part in the decision on a local listing in relation to pre-determination of the decision, noting that the local listing process differed from decisions on planning applications because it was not a statutory process, and concluding that a Councillor who had nominated a building for the Local List, or had made representations on a proposed nomination, was not necessarily excluded from the decision, as long as that Councillor had not closed their mind regarding the decision.

Resolved –    That the new process for making additions to the List of Locally Important Buildings and Structures, as set out in Appendix 2 to the report, be noted.