CD139 Wayfinding Implementation via Legible London and Creative Wayfinding Commission

The Great Place Scheme is a three-year arts, culture and heritage programme funded by National Lottery Heritage Fun and Arts Council England. The total grant award is £1,489,200 and overall expenditure was approved, by OPDC's Board on 22 June 2017, with approval of detailed expenditure plans delegated to the Chief Executive.

In June 2019, OPDC in partnership with Transport for London (TfL) and the London Boroughs of Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham and Ealing, prepared a Wayfinding Strategy for the OPDC area and surrounding neighbourhoods. This strategy sets out the wayfinding required to support pedestrians and cycling across the area and, based on the draft Local Plan assumptions and other development information, it outlined the wayfinding signs needed by 2021, 2026 and 2031.

The strategy identified three key components which would together improve wayfindng across the area:

a) Legible London wayfinding products (TfL standard wayfinding products);

b) Cycle wayfinding products; and

c) Creative wayfinding interventions to aid navigations whilst improving people's experience of the place.

This form seeks approval to deliver the first phase of two of the above schemes: a) Legible London products and c) Creative wayfinding interventions. The schemes will be funded through a combination of S106 contributions drawn from the Oaklands and First Central developments and GLA's Good Growth Funding ringfenced for wayfinding along the Grand Union Canal and Scrubs Lane, as well as Great Place Scheme grant funding (from National Lottery Heritage Fund).

The allocation of S106 Funds were recommended by OPDC's Planning Obligations Advisory Group on 15 July 2020 and has been approved by the Chief Finance Officer (see appendix 1).

The Creative Wayfinding interventions will be delivered as part of OPDC's Great Place Scheme (GPS). The Great Place Scheme is a three-year arts, culture and heritage programme which commenced in early 2018 and will run until June 2021 (it has been extended by 6 months due to Covid-19).

By combining these ring-fenced funds, with distinct geographic focuses (Oaklands, First Central and the Canal), into these two schemes, Legible London signage and Creative Wayfinding interventions will be able to be delivered as a first phase across the OPDC site, in a coherent and cost-efficient manner.

In CD135, the GPS team obtained approval for £20,000 for an artwork to be designed for Park Royal Footbridge. Following further discussions with stakeholders including TfL and the London Borough of Ealing, we feel it would be beneficial if that artwork was wrapped into the same brief as part of the Creative Wayfinding Commission. This will allow the artwork to be created as part of a wider package of artworks, each located at strategic access points in the OPDC area.

All GPS projects, as well as other public realm improvements delivered by OPDC, fall under the In The Making initiative, an umbrella brand incorporating OPDC workstreams which are delivery creative projects and activities benefiting local communities and creating a new public life and a sense of place across Old Oak and Park Royal in the next one to five years, including:

• Early Activation projects (public realm improvements and meanwhile activities, including those drawing on (external) Good Growth Funding; and
• GPS projects (externally funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England); and
• OPDC-wide Engagement initiatives

The overarching objectives of the In The Making initiative are:

• delivering everyday improvements and opportunities with and for local people;
• growing initiatives which will shape successful places; and
• celebrating and promoting what makes Old Oak and Park Royal special.

Budget breakdown for both schemes is as follows:

Legible London Wayfinding

Using the OPDC's Wayfinding Strategy, the Legible London wayfinding products associated with Oaklands (Atlas Road roundabout area as per S106), First Central and the Grand Union Canal has been identified and costed up using a tool with TfL designed for OPDC and Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham, which incorporates the likely management and maintenance funds into the implementation budget. (see Appendix 2).

The products include a selection of permanent directional signs with local area maps including Midiliths, Miniliths and Fingerposts from the standard TfL Legible London range of signage. The assets will be owned by the relevant borough. The boroughs will liaise with TfL to put in place the necessary agreements in relation to fabrication and installation of the signage. Installation will be overseen by the relevant boroughs' highway teams. This process has been discussed and agreed with the relevant officers as part of the process of preparing the OPDC wayfinding strategy, and is a standard process established by TfL and followed for the implementation of all Legible London schemes.

OPDC will then be paying for the costs of design and installation of the items. A pooling arrangement has been agree in principle whereby OPDC will hold the funds received for the future management and maintenance, for the boroughs to access as required (see appendix 2).

TfL have agreed to put in place a contract with each of the three boroughs setting out that the boroughs are responsible for keeping the Legible London products well maintained. Once this is in place, OPDC will have a back to back agreement with the boroughs setting out the arrangements for OPDC to hold the initial management and maintenance budget and how they will be able to draw upon these, as and when needed.

Once these funds run out, responsibility for funding the management and maintenance will revert to the boroughs. If OPDC ceases to exist any remaining management and maintenance funds will be shared out between the boroughs.

Creative Wayfinding Commission

One of the GPS's 'approved purposes' is to commission artists to develop a creative approach to signage and wayfinding across the area. As such, OPDC plans to appoint a creative team to oversee the design and delivery of these interventions, and the brief for this team will include consultation and engagement with the community through the duration of the project.

The creative team will be appointed following an open tender managed by TfL Commercial.

The budget for the project will cover both the design and the installation of the interventions. Once the scheme has been devised, OPDC will support the creative team to work with site owners, community groups, and the local boroughs to agree an on-going maintenance plan and calculate maintenance costs where needed. If necessary, a portion of the project budget will be held back to cover on-going maintenance costs where other sources are not available.

All GPS projects are evaluated and measured against OPDC programme-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) which include numbers of participants, numbers of volunteers engaged (skilled/unskilled and total hours spent), and artists commissioned. As such, the Creative Wayfinding Commission brief will require the appointed suppliers to devise opportunity for local community members to participate in the design and delivery of the artworks, as well as provide volunteering activities and multiple artists to be commissioned. In light of current Covid-19 restrictions these activities will need to be delivered remotely where possible and following current Government guidelines.

Legible London signage is the Mayor of London's pedestrian signage system which is being implemented across London as opportunities arise, to create a consistent, trusted system to improve wayfinding and encourage journeys into and around the OPDC area to take place on foot. This is necessary to reduce congestion and private vehicle usage, improve air quality and encourage local residents and workers to feel safer and more confident undertaking local journeys through the area which is currently very confusing and poorly signposted.

The Creative Wayfinding Commission will result in a series of interventions to also improve wayfinding as well as enhance the public realm and celebrate and reveal the culture and heritage of Old Oak and Park Royal. These interventions will be located along key routes within the area, and at strategic 'entry points' to the OPDC area, including but not limited to: Atlas Roundabout, Victoria Road, Park Royal Station, Harlesden Station, Willesden Junction and along key stretches of the Grand Union Canal towpath. They will create a welcoming and friendly identity and visual language to help new and existing communities to navigate and explore the area, encourage an improved sense of identity, promote security and local pride.

Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the OPDC is subject to the public-sector equality duty and must have 'due regard' to the need to (i) eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; (ii) advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and (iii) foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do. Protected characteristics under section 149 of the Equality Act are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sex orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (all except the last being "relevant" protected characteristics).

The Legible London products will be designed, fabricated and installed by TfL or TfL approved suppliers who are also required to adhere to the above public-sector equality duty in all stages of the work undertaken.

The Creative Wayfinding tender document will explicitly refer to the diversity of the wider OPDC area and requires bidders to explain how they intend to be inclusive in their approach to developing and delivering the works required and meet OPDC's obligations under the Equality Act 2010. This will help OPDC and the Mayor to deliver equality and inclusion policies to promote an accessible and inclusive environment and meet the Equalities Duty by identifying opportunities for existing and newly arriving communities to benefit from development in the OPDC area.

Key risks and issues

Risks are scored for likelihood and impact (each out of five) and combined to give a total score (out of 23). The higher the number the more severe the risk.

Links to Strategies

The implemenation of the Legible London wayfinding components is supported within the OPDC's Local Plan in Policy T2 (Walking) and Policy TCC5 (public art contribution requirement). In addition, the delivery of Legible London signage is identified in the Infrastructure Delivery Plan (p17) and the draft Planning Obligations SPD also identifies the delivery of wayfinding infrastructure (O-T4, p24).

The Creative Wayfinding Commission supports the Mayor's Culture Strategy, specifically these three policies:

• The Mayor will help build and strengthen communities by investing in local culture;
• The Mayor will integrate culture into major infrastructure projects; and
• The Mayor will champion high quality design, architecture and public art.

This report seeks approval for expenditure up to a maximum of £190,000 comprising: £145,000 of capital expenditure and £45,000 of revenue expenditure. Funding for the two projects in this report is detailed below.

Legible London Wayfinding

Expenditure of up to £70,000 will be funded by s106 contributions and Good Growth grant. Per paragraph 1.12, an element of this is for management and maintenance, which after depletion, responsibility for such costs will revert to the boroughs.

Creative Wayfinding

Expenditure of up to £120,000 will be funded by s106 contributions, Good Growth grant and Great Place Scheme budget. The spend profile has been approximated to be 80% in 2020/21 and 20% in 2021/22. Paragraph 1.15 refers to on-going maintenance costs and the possibility of holding back project budget in the absence of other sources of funding external to OPDC. Approval should be sought in advance of any contractual commitments being made.

The Corporation will not own any resulting assets and these will be held and owned by the boroughs. Capital expenditure will be recorded as Revenue Expenditure funded from Capital under Statute, since the expenditure will not give rise to assets in the Corporation's accounts.

Further expenditure is subject to the Corporation's decision making process.

The report above indicates that the decision requested falls within OPDC's objective of securing the regeneration of the Old Oak and Park Royal area and its powers to do anything it considers appropriate for the purpose of its objects or purposes incidental to those purposes, as set out in the Localism Act 2011.

In taking the decisions requested, the CEO must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the CEO should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

Any services required must be procured by Transport for London Commercial who will determine the details of the procurement strategy to be adopted in line with the OPDC's Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that appropriate contract documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the OPDC before the commencement of the services.