Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Bristol City Council, College Green Bristol BS1 5TR

Contact: Jack Latkovic 

Note: Extraordinary meeting 

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome and introduction

In the event of a fire, please await direction from Bristol City Council staff who will help assist with the evacuation.   Please do not return to the building until instructed to do so by the fire warden(s).

 

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting and introduced the members of the committee.

2.

Apologies for Absence

To receive apologies for absence from Members.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Mayor Marvin Rees. Councillor Craig Cheney attended the meeting as a substitute.

3.

Declarations of interest under the Localism Action 2011

Members who consider that they have an interest to declare are asked to: a) State the item number in which they have an interest, b) The nature of the interest, c) Whether the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, non-disclosable pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest. Any Member who is unsure about the above should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer prior to the meeting in order to expedite matters at the meeting itself.

 

Minutes:

There were none.

4.

Chair Announcements

To receive announcements from the Chair of the West of England Combined Authority.

Minutes:

There were none.

5.

Items from the Public pdf icon PDF 421 KB

Members of the public can speak for up to 3 minutes each. The total time for this session is 30 minutes so speaking time will be reduced if more than 10 people wish to speak.

 

If you wish to present a petition or make a statement and speak at the meeting, you are required to give notice of your intention by noon on the working day before the meeting by e-mail to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk.The deadline is 12pm on 25th May 2022.

 

 

Minutes:

The Chair then advised that 5 statements had been received in advance of the meeting. The statements had been circulated to committee members and were available to view on the Combined Authority web site.

 

The following members of the public attended the meeting and addressed the Committee for up to three minutes each:

 

1.     Christina Briggs

2.     David Redgewell

3.     Brendon Taylor

4.     Cllr Tim Rippington

 

 

The Chair invited Richard Bonner (LEP Board Chair) to address the Committee with his statement (attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes).  Richard Bonner invited the Committee to support provision of additional funding to preserve current buss services as much as possible in order to help support citizens’ jobs and services, to work with unions and business on which bus services may be affected, and to engage with citizens and principal stakeholders to manage implications of mitigations measures.

 

The Chair invited Councillor Winston Duguid, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to address the Committee.  Councillor Duguid commented that walking, cycling and traveling by bus was essential in reducing car usage in the area, and asked the Committee to come up with a solution, even if that would be short term solution.

 

The Chair thanked everyone who has submitted a statement by saying that all the comments have been noted and would be taken into account by the Committee today.

Appendix 1 pdf icon PDF 87 KB

6.

Transport Levy pdf icon PDF 2 MB

At the request of the  three constituent members of the Combined Authority an extraordinary urgent meeting of the Combined Authority has been called to discuss the totality of the transport levy, it’s distribution across the constituent Unitary Authorities, and the associated award of supported bus contracts.

 

The requisition submitted by the three Councils requests that the business to be transacted at the extraordinary meeting is as follows.

 

The Combined Authority will consider the following proposal:

 

In order to protect essential bus services across the West of England, the Combined Authority Resolves to:

  1. To consider the feasibility of seeking a one-year extension to the current bus contracts to enable a long term sustainable solution to be found in collaboration with the Unitary Authorities.
  2. To underwrite, either 1 above, or any new contract award from appropriate budgets, to enable the constituent councils and the combined authority to consider the budget impact for 23/24 onwards, including a clear assessment as to the VFM of routes, equality and service mitigations, and the appropriate share of service and cost across the Combined Authority and Levied Authorities.

 

 

Minutes:

The Chair introduced the report by saying that, like most combined authorities, the West of England have received its funding for running supported bus services from its constituent councils in the form of a Transport Levy.  The Levy was agreed between the various parties when all the bus service contracts, and other bus-related functions were transferred to the Combined Authority in 2020.  Unfortunately, inflationary pressures particularly from driver shortages and fuel price increases have resulted in a significant rise in tender prices for supported services contracts.

This report has followed the tender process for the financially supported bus service contracts across the region. It also followed previous reports in January and April which sought to enable the Combined Authority, as the Local Transport Authority, to award new contracts for bus services through appropriate delegations.

The recommendations set out in the report have included a full range of funding options and each has had a direct consequence for bus services currently running. 

 

The Chair informed the meeting that voting arrangements on this item required majority of present Committee members, or their substitutes, and excluded Metro Mayor.

 

The Chair asked for mover and seconder on one of the options in the report recommendations.

 

There were no movers and seconders for any of the options in the report recommendations.

 

Councillor Kevin Guy moved the following motion:

 

The Combined Authority Resolves:

 

1)    To negotiate extension of all the existing contracts by 12 months (in conjunction with consistent Councils), in order to provide the time to complete the required review and to delegate to the Combined Authority Chief Executive, in consultation with the Unitary Authority Chief Executives, the review and authority to conduct a negotiated procurement for2023/24 and beyond.

2)    To meet the increased costs implication of 12-month extension of contracts (from September 2022) and newly commissioned service provision from September 2023/24, in line with the funding principles agreed by the Chief Finance Officers from constituent Councils.

3)    That the Combined Authority S151 officer, in consultation with the Unitary Authority s151 officers, undertakes a comprehensive review into principles of setting the transport levy for 2023/24 and for future years, and to report back to the committee as part of the Unitary Authorities budget setting decision.

 

Councillor Toby Savage seconded the motion.

 

Councillor Kevin Guy outlined the following draft funding principles (as agreed by UA s151 officers).

 

The funding principles – 1 year extension all services:

 

1. Prior year and in year underspend / headroom on the transport levy inc. concessionary fares budgets and transport smoothing reserve is held to mitigate bus contract pressures.

2. Any income from bus services not assumed in the contract price should be earmarked to reduce the call on the constituent Councils.

3. Net increases above mitigation 1 & 2 above (having been satisfactorily exhausted) will be underwritten by constituent Councils as a one-off pressure, addressed via the budget monitoring report to Cabinet or their emergency decision / urgency provisions under the constitution.

 

The funding principles – newly commissioned service (following negotiated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.