The British Red Cross Guildhall Christmas Market is a fantastic place to start your Christmas shopping and our silent auction lots are already online so you can start early! You can see the whole list here but here is a taste of what’s on offer:

• A two night stay for eight people at the Luxe Marrakech Riad, Morocco.
• HOW COOL IS THIS EXPERIENCE – City of London Police forensic experience – six people learn the secrets that lead the City of London Police force to solve crime in this unique experience!
• OR THIS – Raise London’s Famous Tower Bridge – this chance to open London’s most iconic bridge isn’t normally available to the public so a truly unique experience.
• Chatham Historic Dockyard Lunch & Submarine Tour. Enjoy a day for 4 people at Chatham Historic Dockyard. This experience includes lunch and a private tour of HM Submarine Ocelot – a vessel that has clocked up 90,000 miles on top-secret missions around the world.
• Year’s Supply of Wine – get stocked up for Christmas (and beyond!)
• London College of Fashion course. A great experience for any budding Stella McCartney to learn the ropes at this prestigious fashion college.
• A signed drawing by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood – a rare chance to receive a 10 from Craig!

You really can apply and buy now – https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/christmasmarket2017

We’d love to see you at the Market. You can enjoy champagne and canapes at the Preview Night on Monday 27 November or spend the day shopping on Tuesday 28 November.

A further way to support the Market is to make a donation. Please send any cheques made payable to the British Red Cross to Kerry Thomas, Guildhall Christmas Market, British Red Cross, 44 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AL.

Apprenticeships provide an opportunity to address skills needs and support the competitiveness of the Financial and Professional Services sector.  They can help open the door to untapped talent by offering another route into the sector.

The City Corporation supports apprenticeships through its role on the Government’s Apprenticeship Delivery Board and our policy and promotional work. As part of this commitment in 2017/18, we are running “Apprenticeships in the City”, a FREE Apprenticeship programme of support, which is targeted at small to medium banking and asset management firms, looking to bring talent into their business, but are new to apprenticeships and wondering where to start.

Check it out here – https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/business/supporting-local-communities/Pages/Apprenticeships-in-the-City.aspx.

And Gresham College lectures on the subject too – “Apprenticeship in Early Modern London: City apprentices in the 16th and 17th centuries” – by Dr Patrick Wallis and Dr Christopher Minns – as well as by the Rt Hon The Lord Mayor Dr Andrew Parmley – “Apprenticeship: Politics, Education, or Reality Television“.

We wanted to inform you that that the Bank on Safety consultation survey is now available on the project’s website. It is intended that this will remain open until the end of November and will be widely promoted through social media and direct interaction with the general public over the course of the consultation period.

Letters will shortly be sent to local businesses, residents and stakeholders to further encourage their observations of the experiment, either through the survey or via their email comments.

Our ongoing monitoring work will also include the post perception survey which is scheduled to run in September. This is in addition to the consultation survey that has just been made available. The monitoring work combined with this consultation and feedback will then be presented to Members prior to any decision being taken on the permanency of this experiment.

If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact the Bank on Safety Project Team at bankonsafety@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Good business can only succeed in healthy, vibrant societies, which is why it is so important to promote and reflect on the volume and breadth of the community work that the City and UK business does.

City Giving Day is an annual event that unites the City through its charity and community partnerships. It gives business the opportunity to promote and celebrate the good work that they do.  This year it is Tuesday, 26 September.

If you are interested in finding out more about City Giving Day and increasing corporate engagement, please join us at an information breakfast at Mansion House, hosted by the Lord Mayor on Tuesday, 13 June (rsvp to cgd@thelordmayorsappeal.org) or visit the City Giving Day website.

Given the importance and high profile of the Bank junction scheme we thought that you would appreciate an update on progress and the timing of the introduction of the experimental scheme.

The ‘Bank on Safety’ experimental scheme will be launched on Monday 22 May. Between the hours of 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, Bank junction will be a pedestrian, bus and cycle only junction in a bid to significantly reduce casualties. This date will start to be communicated from today, Monday 24 April.
A report will be given in early July focusing on:

• operational matters of the experiment to date, such as any proposed changes to the scheme
• observations of how the experiment is working from a traffic perspective
• data on the number of vehicles entering the City over the duration of the first couple of weeks
• preliminary bus journey times on key corridors ( Cannon Street, Bishopsgate, London Wall, St Martin Le Grand/New Change).

The bus journey time data will be used as a proxy for general traffic journey times on the same corridors.

The data will be from the first couple of weeks of operation when new vehicle movement patterns will not have fully settled down. The data is provided to assist with informing the observational comments.

If you would like details of the longer term proposed monitoring strategy please get in touch.

Part of the monitoring strategy covers perception and whether the experiment makes a perceived difference.  From today the below online survey opens. It will close on Sunday 21 May. The survey is open to anyone that passes through Bank and can be accessed via the website www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/bankonsafety

The full public consultation phase for the experiment will open officially on 22 May, but will not be promoted actively for the first few weeks while the scheme settles. It is intended that following the verbal report, the consultation will be promoted more actively and have regular ‘revivals’ to capture as many individual responses as possible.  It is planned to close the consultation at the end of November 2017.

If you’d like to contact officers about the sheme you are more than welcome to do so direct via bankarea@cityoflondon.gov.uk or 020 7332 3839

We hope that you find this update helpful. Please do share it with colleagues, friends and family who use the junction.

Following the Broad Street Ward Mote on Wednesday, 22 March, at Carpenters’ Hall, the existing civic team will continue to serve you and the City for the next four years.

We would like to express our thanks to all of those voters in the Ward who have supported us in the past, yet also a particularly warm welcome for new voters in the Ward.

With the next elections not until 2021 we are conscious that it is all too easy to lose touch and enthusiasm during this time.  The Broad Street Ward Club welcomes new members and, with a regular series of events, is an accessible way of networking with colleagues in the Ward, as well as staying in touch with the civic team.  You will find an application form on their website and we would be pleased to sponsor your application.

The absence of a contested election makes us all the more determined to fulfil your confidence in us by representing your interests to the best of our ability, both in the Ward and in the wider City.  All three of us, with the support of Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli, will continue to have leading roles in Corporation committees during the coming year which gives us a very real influence on policy issues and helps to ensure that Broad Street remains at the heart of the City.

 John Bennett                                      Christopher Hayward                                  John Scott

John45bennett@gmail.com       chris@haywardinvestments.com       john@historystoreltd.uk

Working for the City, Working for the Ward, Working for YOU.

The City of London Corporation has granted approval for an experimental safety scheme for Bank junction called Bank on Safety. The scheme is aimed at improving the safety of pedestrians and road users at one of the worst collision hotspots in the City of London.

It is planned that only pedal cyclists and buses will be permitted to cross Bank Junction, Monday to Friday, between the hours of 7am to 7pm. The experiment will last up to 18 months and will not begin until work on Cannon Street is completed, which is expected to finish at the end of April.

The primary objective is to achieve a 50-60% reduction in casualties in the Bank area, 75% which occur Monday – Friday from 7am to 7pm. We are also expecting to see improvements in air quality at the junction and reduced journey times for bus passengers on a number of routes. Pedestrians dominate this area during the working day and yet are given the least priority in time and space. The second most dominant mode is pedal cyclists, who in the peak periods account for around 50% of the vehicles crossing the junction.

The City has worked closely with Transport for London to ensure that the surrounding streets are not adversely impacted by the experiment. Traffic signals will be modified to regulate the overall network when the scheme goes live. Our expectation is that average vehicle journey times in the vicinity will be maintained, possibly improved. During restricted times, vehicles will still be able to pick up and drop off passengers near the junction, just as they do at the moment with the existing barriers, such as the guard railing. To mitigate the impact on taxis, new taxi ranks and an extension of existing taxi ranks will be provided.

As this is an experimental scheme, we will monitor and review the impact. Modifications can be made if necessary. The first review will take place four weeks after the scheme’s launch followed by a report presented to City of London Committees. We will also begin a comprehensive public consultation after the Bank on Safety scheme is in place. This will give the opportunity to experience the changes and make comment whilst the City monitors the impact of safety and traffic movements. The City Corporation will need to determine whether the safety scheme should remain in place based on the evidence and comments.

Our entire project team are committed to continue to work closely with you and are available at your convenience. We are preparing materials that will help further explain possible modifications. Additionally, next month we will be hosting project briefings at St Stephen Walbrook Church on Wednesday 5 April at 12:30pm and 5:30pm.

We welcome you to visit our website, www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/bankonsafety, which is updated regularly. You can also contact our team directly at bankarea@cityoflondon.gov.uk or 020 7606 3839.

2017 looks like being a challenging year, both internationally, nationally, and here in the City.

Your elected Members for the Ward of Broad Street are unique in the City in each chairing a major City Committee which places us at the heart of decision making in the Square Mile.  We will be doing all we can to ensure that the City continues to prosper, whatever strategy the Government pursues to disengage from Europe.

We pledge to deliver more on the local issues which affect the City and Broad Street Ward.  John Bennett and John Scott had long careers in the banking industry, latterly with Deutsche Bank in the Ward, whilst Chris Hayward is a resident in the Ward.  As Chairman of the Planning & Transportation Committee, Chris’s responsibilities touch on the lives of everyone here in the City, both residents and workers.

Although less obvious, John Scott’s chairmanship of the Markets Committee also impinges upon lives as our wholesale markets at Smithfield, Billingsgate and Spitalfields supply shops, restaurants and markets stalls throughout London.  Culture has long been at the heart of what we do in the City and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, chaired by John Bennett, tops the Guardian’s league table of conservatoires in 2017.

Each one of us has many responsibilities apart from these headlines.  We would welcome the chance to tell you more and there is nothing to beat a personal contact so please either respond to this message or contact us individually if you want to arrange a meeting either here at Guildhall or at your office or home if you live in the City.  A Wardmote (Ward meeting) will be held at Carpenters’ Hall at 12 noon on Wednesday 22nd March.  This gives you the opportunity to question us and all the other candidates in the forthcoming City elections and we look forward to meeting you.

Learn more about the Ward, your Common Councilmen, and your Alderman from this short video:

John Bennett,
Chairman,
Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
john45bennett@gmail.com

Chris Hayward,
Chairman,
Planning & Transportation Committee
chris@haywardinvestments.com

John Scott,
Chairman,
Markets Committee.
john@historystore.ltd.uk

with the support of Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli, michael_mainelli@zyen.com