Agenda and minutes

In the event of a fire, please await direction from venue 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).

The Mayor welcomed everybody to the meeting which was being held at the offices of Arcadis.  The evacuation procedure was set out.

To receive any apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies for absence had been received from Cllr Kevin Guy, Leader, Bath & North East Somerset Council.  Councillor Tim Ball attended as substitute.

Apologies for absence had also been received from the Chair of the Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting, Cllr Winston Duguid.  Councillor Brenda Massey attended in his place.

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.

The following declarations of interest were declared in respect of Agenda Item 8 (Bristol Temple Quarter Regeneration Programme)

Richard Bonner, Chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board placed on record that the company he worked for, Arcadis, was working on projects on Temple Quarter.  His statement to the Committee Meeting was on behalf of the LEP Board and was made in that context.

Richard Ennis, the Interim Director of Investment and Corporate Services declared that he had been an Executive Director for Homes England for 10 years.  Homes England were a partner organisation for this project.

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

There were no announcements from the Chair.

Please note: public items (questions, statements and petitions) at Extraordinary meetings must be about the specific business on the agenda for the meeting.  Please can you indicate which agenda item your submission relates to.  Members of the public who have submitted statements in advance of the meeting can attend the meeting and can address the meeting for up to three minutes on the subject on their statement if they so wish.

Space will be limited so please indicate in advance if you wish to attend.

The total time that will be set aside for this session will be 30 minutes so the speaking time will be reduced if more than 10 people wish to speak.

Responses to the submitted questions will be circulated to the questioners as soon as practicable.

WRITTEN PUBLIC QUESTIONS (written procedure)

1. Any member of the public can submit a maximum of two written questions in advance of this meeting.

2. The deadline for the submission of questions is 5.00 pm on Monday 10 October 2022.

3. Questions should be addressed to the Chair of the meeting and e-mailed to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4. Written replies to questions will be sent to questioners as soon as possible and published on the Authority’s website.

5. Please note - under the Combined Authority’s committee procedures, there is no opportunity for oral supplementary questions to be asked at committee meetings.

PUBLIC STATEMENTS

1. Any member of the public may submit a written statement (or petition) to this meeting.

2. Please note that one statement per individual is permitted.

3. Statements must be submitted in writing and received by 12noon on Thursday 13 October 2022. Statements should be emailed to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk

4. Statements will be listed for the meeting in the order of receipt. All statements will be sent to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the Combined Authority website.

5. Please note: If any member of the public wishes to attend the meeting to orally present their statement, they are asked please to notify the Combined Authority’s Democratic Services team of this at the point when their statement is submitted.

As this was an extraordinary meeting of the Committee only questions and statements relating to items on the agenda had been allowed. 

Two questions from one individual member of the public had been submitted for this meeting, details had been circulated and the questions and responses had been published on the Authority’s website alongside the agenda papers prior to the meeting.

Four statements had been submitted by the deadline and these had been published on the Authority’s website alongside the agenda papers prior to the meeting.

The following persons attended the meeting and addressed the Committee on the topic of their statement for up to three minutes each:

1.     Christina Biggs (on behalf of Dave Redgwell)

2.     Robbie Bentley (also spoke on behalf of Brendan Taylor)

The Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership to be invited to comment upon the submitted reports.

The following comments were raised by Richard Bonner, the Chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership Board in relation to the reports:

Bristol Temple Quarter Regeneration Programme [BTQRP]

§  I am very supportive of the Bristol Temple Quarter Regeneration Programme. As stated in the report this is one of the largest and most ambitious regeneration programmes in England and this funding will bring dramatic improvements to Temple Meads Station and improve regional connectivity across the West of England.

§  This regeneration will also unlock the delivery of a significant quantum of new homes, support new jobs and develop commercial and retail space all served by high quality public spaces in the heart of the city.

§  Public transport, walking and cycling will all be made easier, creating a greener, well-connected community - helping to achieve our ambitious net zero target.

Investment Fund Business Case including Hydrogen Sustainable Transport Economy Accelerator [HSTEA]

§  I welcome the Business Case for the Hydrogen Sustainable Transport Economy Accelerator (HSTEA) led by University of Bath and part of the Institute of Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems.

§  HSTEA will add unique capability to the West of England region, will act as a catalyst for economic development and inward investment, and contribute significantly to putting the region at the forefront of the hydrogen economy.

§  Globally, over 30 countries have published hydrogen strategies and roadmaps, and over 350 large-scale investment projects have been announced. The project gives the regional ‘early mover advantage’ against this opportunity.

§  It will build on our innovation and industrial strengths. For example, the local aerospace cluster is at the forefront of hydrogen aviation developments, being home to the Airbus Zero Emission Development Centre (ZEDC) and GKN Aerospace’s H2GEAR project. A number of businesses have already committed their support for the HSTEA project, including providing match funding.

The Chair of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to be invited to comment upon the submitted reports.

Councillor Brenda Massey attended the meeting as the representative of the Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee.  The comments of the Committee had been circulated in advance of the meeting and published on the Authority’s website. 

It was confirmed a correct should be made to the comments submitted as the Full Business Case (FBC) for the HSTEA had not yet been agreed and that approval of the FBC formed part of the recommendations for the Committee to consider.  

The comments from the Overview & Scrutiny Committee are attached at Appendix 1.

Temple Quarter is one of the largest regeneration programmes in England and will bring about dramatic improvements to Temple Meads Station, including three new entrances to the station in the north, south and east, hugely improving access to the station from across the city. Combined with improvements to the surrounding areas of Mead Street Redcliffe Way, the project will create a world-class gateway to the West of England, set against the backdrop of Brunel’s historic Grade 1 listed station.

The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) signed a Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) with Homes England (HE) on 12 April 2022 to bring £94.7m into the region to specifically deliver 2,473 homes around the Station along with a significant upgrade to Bristol Temple Meads Station and the station’s car parks (Phase 1), up to 2200 new jobs, as well as 48,000 sqm of commercial and retail space.  Subsequent funding will be required to deliver Phase 2 which will ultimately deliver a combined total of 10,000 homes in Bristol Temple Quarter and St Phillips Marsh area. The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) and 3 other public sector partners, Homes England (HE), Bristol City Council (BCC) and Network Rail (NR)- have been working closely to set up and take the programme forward over the past 18 months

The Committee received a report which stated that Temple Quarter was one of the largest regeneration programmes in England and would bring about dramatic improvements to Temple Meads Station, including three new entrances to the station in the north, south and east, hugely improving access to the station from across the city. Combined with improvements to the surrounding areas of Mead Street Redcliffe Way, the project would create a world-class gateway to the West of England, set against the backdrop of Brunel’s historic Grade 1 listed station. The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) had signed a Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) with Homes England (HE) on 12 April 2022 to bring £94.7m into the region to specifically deliver 2,473 homes around the Station along with a significant upgrade to Bristol Temple Meads Station and the station’s car parks (Phase 1), up to 2200 new jobs, as well as 48,000 sqm of commercial and retail space. Subsequent funding would be required to deliver Phase 2 which would ultimately deliver a combined total of 10,000 homes in Bristol Temple Quarter and the St Phillips Marsh area. The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) and 3 other public sector partners, Homes England (HE), Bristol City Council (BCC) and Network Rail (NR)- had been working closely to set up and take the programme forward over the past 18 months.

The HE GFA of £94.7m required the Combined Authority to enter into a “back-to-back” funding agreement with local partners Bristol City Council (BCC) and Network Rail (NR) by 31 October 2022. This had resulted in a Collaboration Agreement between all four partners (HE, Combined Authority, BCC and NR) as well as bilateral Flowdown Agreements that were explicitly subject to the Collaboration Agreement. HE had set a deadline to enter into these agreements by 31 October 2022 as set out in the GFA between the Combined Authority and principal partners. These agreements needed collectively to be entered into by 31 October 2022 to drive forward one of the largest regeneration programmes in England. Committee were asked to note that final sign off was still awaited from HE in respect of the flowdown and collaboration agreements.

Metro Mayor Dan Norris in moving the recommendations stated that he was delighted that the Authority had unblocked funding in April 2022 when the West of England Combined Authority had been awarded £94.7m of funding and reiterated that this was one of the largest regeneration schemes in Europe.  He thanked officers for the work involved in bringing this to fruition.

The recommendations were seconded by Mayor Marvin Rees.

Mayor Rees stated that he this was an example of how a region can work collaboratively with other partners including the Department for Transport, the University of Bristol and Heritage.  There had been previous commitments made by Government but the funding had now been secured.  He welcomed the opportunity to establish an important transport hub, the housing and the office space.  He was keen that the economic development benefitted the local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To consider Full Business Cases and funding allocations

The Metro Mayor introduced a report stating that there were two elements to consider.  Firstly the Committee were requested to consider a Hydrogen Sustainable Transport Economy Accelerator proposal from the University of Bath, to establish a new green hydrogen’ production, storage, and research facility which would help place the region at the cutting edge of the new hydrogen economy.

Secondly the Committee were asked to support the Arena Infrastructure package to deliver the transport connectivity needed to move people around sustainably.

The recommendations were moved by Metro Mayor Dan Norris and seconded by Cllr Toby Savage.

Cllr Savage stated that he had visited IAPS at Emersons Green with a local MP and welcomed the importance of this latest project which would create a unique green hydrogen production storage and research facility at the Bristol and Bath Science Park to assist with the power demands for the zero emissions targets and helping to boost the local economy.

Further to the comments received from the Overview & Scrutiny Committee it was confirmed that the Full Business Case for the HSTEA had not yet been agreed and that approval of the FBC formed part of the recommendations for the Committee to consider.  

Cllr Ball stated that he welcomed the HSTEA proposal and was keen that hydrogen buses usage increased to potentially reduce the need for fracking and other alternatives.

Cllr Savage spoke on the Arena Infrastructure Package and was pleased that progress was being made.  He asked that a consistent approach be given to assessment of schemes and the decision making thereon.  He stated that the Arena, when complete, would be the third largest arena in the UK so would have an important regional and national role.  He stated that it was now important to give consideration for how users of the site would be able to access the site sustainably and quickly to minimise disruption to the existing communities around the site.  The Business Case sought to access investment funding for cycling and walking, traffic management, etc. together with MetroWest Phase 2 and MetroBus schemes.

Mayor Rees stated that he welcomed the Arena Package proposals.  He felt that this was the right decision for the area, both financially and in terms of sustainability, as the Arena would now be one of the most sustainable in the world due to the repurposing of an existing building.  He stated that it would be a regional, national and international asset so the transport links were essential.

[Voting arrangements: Decision required the majority agreement of Committee Members in attendance, or their substitutes (one vote representing each Authority) and including the West of England Combined Authority Mayor].

It was unanimously

Resolved:

(1)   That the Full Business Case for the HSTEA be agreed and to award total funding of £2.5m, consisting of the Green Recovery Fund (£0.9m), Future Transport Zone (£1.2m) and Innovation for Renewal and Opportunity Influence Fund (£0.4m) with the delegation for agreeing the final cost profile and revised outputs to the Combined Authority Chief Executive in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.