Agenda item

Report of the Director of Policy, Performance and Communications

3.1      The Chairman referred to the Night Tube service having commenced on the Victoria and Central lines on 19 August.  She had made a statement when the service had previously been due to begin operating in 2015 that consideration would not be given to any extension of hours for premises licences until the Council had evidence of the impact of the Night Tube on the borough.  She had invited Jo Lodge, Head of Westminster Business Intelligence and Dominic Baker, Business Intelligence Business Lead, who were assessing the impact of the Night Tube to produce a report and provide a presentation at the meeting.       

3.2      Mr Baker asked Members of the Committee to give him some feedback as to how they would like to see the data presented in the future.  The data was in some cases sourced from within the Council such as fixed penalty notices, street cleansing incidents and noise complaints.  Also Business Intelligence had worked very closely with the Business Improvement Districts (‘BID’s) who had provided significant levels of footfall data from over fifty sites in the borough.  Crime data would be obtained from the Police which was released in monthly batches.  Currently the most recent Police crime data available was from June 2016.        

3.3      Mr Baker made the point that the current outputs were for the Victoria and Central Lines and in the future data would be provided for the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Northern lines when they begin to operate a Night Tube service.  Mr Baker explained in respect of Figure 1 in the report, which summarised the results of the network analysis, that before the Night Tube service went live in August, the Business Intelligence team had looked at which areas were most likely to be most impacted and have the greatest footfall.  They had assessed which sources within the Council provided reliable data, such as that relating to licensed premises.  They had worked out the likely routes that people would take from licensed premises to the Central and Victoria underground stations.  Once there was a record of data over time from the Night Tube service it would be possible to measure it against the initial analysis undertaken.          

3.4      Mr Baker stated in respect of Figure 2 of the report that it gave an idea of the extent of the footfall sensor locations across the borough.  New West End Company in the Oxford Street area had granted the Council access to detailed footfall data from a number of sensors at retail sites.  Marble Arch was well represented.  Soho was not currently as well represented although there was Heart of London and Northbank data.  In response to a question from Councillor Harvey, Mr Baker informed Members that he was in discussions regarding accessing datasets for the Victoria area.  He was currently contacting other stakeholders in areas where there was currently less information being supplied.

3.5      Mr Baker took Members of the Committee through some of the data outputs on the interactive dashboard.  There was a graph which compared weekly ‘noise in the street’ incidents between 00:00 and 07:00 on Friday and Saturday night (the hours of operation of the Night Tube service).  The team was looking at whether the number of incidents would increase following the introduction of the Night Tube.  Ward and cumulative impact data was available and the types of noise could also be ascertained.  Mr Baker clarified that whilst the data shown in Figure 3 was for the last three financial years, it could be displayed in terms of calendar years.  He also made the point that with the Night Tube having operated for four to five weeks, a trend was not apparent as yet.  He showed Members an initial output of footfall data count. Any trends were likely to be found over the next ten weeks or so, taking into account the Night Tube services on the additional lines.  Ms Lodge advised the Committee that more in depth analysis would be taken forward by specialist analysts.  This was likely to commence towards the end of 2016.

3.6      Councillor Mitchell stated that whilst the datasets provided were particularly useful, it would be very helpful to have further footfall data on the Villiers Street and Covent Garden areas.  He appreciated the detail of sensor data provided there would not be comparable to what was supplied by New West End Company.  He added that it would be useful to have data from Transport for London, including the correlation of the footfall with the use of underground stations and asked how detailed the Police crime data was.  Mr Baker replied that the Police open data set out the volume of crime over a 24 hour period but not the exact times of the crimes.

3.7      Councillor Caplan and Councillor Freeman welcomed the work that had been commenced by the Business Intelligence Team.  They agreed that it was too early to attempt to interpret the data at this stage.  It would be of interest after six months of the Night Tube operating.  Councillor Caplan made the additional point that no conclusions could be drawn until after at least twelve to eighteen months or so.  He expressed the view that officers would have to be careful in how they interpreted the Police data.  There would likely be a time lag in terms of what the information related to as arrests and convictions often took place a while after the incidents took place.  

3.8      The Chairman thanked Mr Baker and Ms Lodge for the report and presentation and stated that the Committee would watch the evolving work in this area with interest.    

3.9       RESOLVED: That the Committee welcomed the work to date of the Business Intelligence Team in monitoring the impact of the Night Tube in Westminster.