Agenda, decisions 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 evacuation procedure was noted.

To receive any apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies for absence had been received from Mayor Marvin Rees (Bristol City Council).  Cllr Don Alexander attended as substiutute 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.

There were no Declarations of Interest declared in respect of the Localism Act 2011.

To consider and approve the minutes from the meetings held on 14 June 2022 (adjourned from 26 May 2022), 23 September 2022, 14 October 2022 and 12 December 2022 West of England Combined Authority Committee Meetings.

The minutes from the meetings held on 14 June 2022 (adjourned from 26 May 2022), 23 September 2022, 14 October 2022 and 12 December 2022 were agreed as correct records and signed by the Chair.

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

There were no Chair’s announcements.

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, at least 3 clear working days ahead of a meeting. For this meeting, the deadline for questions is 5.00 pm on Thursday 12 January 2023.

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

4. Under the direction of the Chair, wherever possible, written replies to questions will be sent to questioners by the end of the working day prior to the meeting.

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

6. The written questions and replies will be circulated to committee members in advance of the meeting and published on the Combined Authority website.

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 the deadline of 12 noon on the working day before the meeting. For this meeting, the deadline for statements is 12 noon on Tuesday 17 January 2023. 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 and by 12 noon on the working day before the meeting at the very latest.

For those presenting their statements at the meeting, up to 3 minutes ‘speaking time’ is permitted for each statement. The total time available for the public session at this meeting is 30 minutes.

Ten questions had been received from six members of the public.  The responses from Metro Mayor Dan Norris had been circulated and published.

In addition, fifty-seven statements had been received in advance of the meeting.  The following persons who were present at the meeting were given the opportunity to address the meeting for up to three minutes each on the topic of their statement:

·       Cllr Claire Young, South Gloucestershire Council;

·       Dave Redgewell;

·       Cllr Tim Rippington, Bristol City Council;

·       Jackie Head;

·       Jevon Smith (on behalf of Brendan Taylor);

·       Cllr Tim Kent, Bristol City Council;

·       Cllr Hal McFie, Bath & North East Somerset Council;

All the statements received had been circulated and published on the Authority’s website.

Metro Mayor Dan Norris reiterated that the DRT plan was not designed to be a substitute for supported bus services but was designed to get passengers onto the commercial bus routes.

The Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership to be invited to address the meeting.

We recognise that having an effective transport system is critical to the economic functioning of the region, connect our residents to jobs, to educational institutions, health and leisure is critical.  We recognise however, that there are difficult issues that we face as outlined in the paper, but these issues are not unique to the West of England.

I think we should acknowledge the engagement that Mayor Norris has led engagement with communities across the West of England, and would like to thank him, colleagues and officers for their community engagement.

Whilst there are difficult decisions to make, we  support the overall approach set out in the committee paper to settle on a transport levy for bus services across the region, including supported services.

A rise in fuel prices and wages, set against a shortfall in driver numbers has created a challenging economic environment for operators and our region needs to embrace the transport offer changes which will be implemented from April if we are to succeed with a more cost efficient transport offer beyond 2025.

Finally these measures form a part of our wider approach to our regional transport network, and we are looking forward to the wider consultation on the ‘Mass Transit / Future 4 West network, and this should sit alongside the measures and community engagement that is required to transition towards measures such as the Demand Responsive Transport.   One of the issues that we face in the region compared to others, is the lack of fund raising at the WECA level, and other CA’s have these powers, and such consultation provides us with the opportunity to look at other ways in which we can support and fund the networks and much needed improvements in our transport infrastructure.

The Chair of the Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee to present the comments of that Committee.

Councillor Duguid, the Chair of the Authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee attended the meeting and submitted comments on behalf of that Committee.  The West of England Combined Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee had met informally two days before the meeting and the comments from that committee had been circulated and published in advance of the meeting.

This report sets out the overall approach to buses, bringing together supported bus services, funded by the Transport Levy, to be taken in the context of regional bus network investment, primarily funded through the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).

To:

a) Note award of DRT services across the region funded through BSIP.

b) To agree that a Levy for 2023/2024 of an amount set out in table 1, section 11, with additional contributions included within the table, Appendix E, table ‘LEVY contribution by budget line’, to be issued by the Combined Authority (the “Transport Levy”) to the constituent councils under 74 of the Local Government Act and in accordance with the Transport Levying Bodies Regulations 1992.

c) To delegate to the Director of Infrastructure, in consultation with the infrastructure Directors in the CA constituent councils, the award of contracts to the bus operators in accordance with supported bus service contract option set out in Appendix A against the funding envelope available from the Transport Levy.

The decision was urgent as set out in paragraph 5 of the report, because any delay in implementation would mean that the statutory timetable for ensuring continuation of service of any let services would not be met. Therefore this decision was not subject to call-in

The Committee considered a report setting out the overall approach to buses, bringing together supported bus services, funded by the Transport Levy, to be taken in the context of regional bus network investment, primarily funded through the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). The region had secured significant funding through BSIP which would enable change and a move from traditional to transformative solutions for the region.

The report set out a raft of bus network investment interventions including, fare packages, revenue support to enhance services, rural (DRT), feeder services, additional services, and driver recruitment campaigns.

The investment precedes future capital investment in bus priority measures and passenger facilities through the City Region Sustainable Travel Settlement (CRSTS) aimed at ensuring longer term public transport sustainability.

Through BSIP the Authority had also created meaningful partnerships with operators, including revenue share opportunities through Enhanced Partnerships (EP) scheme.

In introducing the item Metro Mayor Dan Norris thanked all the officers and councillors across the region for the enormous amount of work that had gone into enabling and preparing the report.

He reminded those present that the West of England Combined Authority Committee had made a decision in July 2023 to extend the supported bus services network until early April 2023. This gave the opportunity to reassess an optimum way forward to provide a supported network, in light of the opportunities afforded by the award of the Bus Service Improvement Plan - as well as other Transport solutions being trialled through the Future Transport Zone programme.

With Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding, the Authority had contracted to introduce a Demand Responsive Transport platform across the region to increase connectivity into the region’s commercial network. This funding had also enabled the Authority to enhance a number of existing supported bus services. These would become operational in early April 2023.

This funding would help to provide a new and transformative platform on which to build the region’s Transport network for the future and to establish a more sustainable longer-term solution at a time when all were experiencing inflationary pressures and bus patronage was below pre-Covid levels. The Bus Service Improvement Plan funding would also helped to?reduce the pressure on the calls for increased levy funding in the medium term but it has to be noted that this has not been without consequence for some existing supported services.?

Councillor Savage asked whether it could be confirmed if enough information was contained in the report in order that a decision could be made, especially in relation to the Equalities Impact Assessment.  It was confirmed that an independent assessment was carried out and shared with the officers of the constituent authorities.  The Interim Monitoring Officer confirmed that sufficient information was available in the report to enable a lawful decision to be made.

Councillor Kevin Guy stated that the rising costs and mix of commercial and supported services was confusing to customers and welcomed the bold measures being put forward but was wary of the implementation across such a large  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.