Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence.

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.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting of the committee as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 June 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

If you wish to present a petition or make a statement at this meeting, you are required to

submit this by 12 noon on the working day before the meeting by e-mail to

democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk   For this meeting, this means that your

petition/statement must be received in this office by 12 noon on Tuesday 16 July

2019.

If you wish to ask a question at the meeting, you are required to submit the question in

writing to democratic.services@westofengland-ca.gov.uk by no later than 3 working

days before the meeting. For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be

received in this office by the end of Thursday 11 July 2019.

In presenting any statements at the meeting, members of the public are generally

permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each. The total time available for this session is

30 minutes so at the discretion of the Chair, speaking time may sometimes be reduced

depending on how many public items are received. Please note that all public items will

be circulated in advance of the meeting to the committee members

The following statements were received.  The listed persons were all present at the meeting and submitted their statements orally.

1. David Redgewell, Transport Issues
2. Christina Biggs, Transport Issues

The Committee stated that the issue raised in the first statement regarding the potential removal of bus lane at Hambrook near the M32 as part of a trial by South Gloucestershire Council to improve air quality raised a concern regarding an impact on bus service reliability at a time when the Combined Authority and all West of England authorities should be taking all possible action to promote bus and public transport use.  The Committee therefore asked for reassurance that all authorities have been appropriately involved in discussions on this matter.

The Chair informed the meeting that Mayor Bowles had put forward a motion to the WECA Committee on Friday 19 July 2019 calling on the Combined Authority to declare a climate emergency.  The wording of the motion had been circulated to the WECA Overview & Scrutiny Committee in advance of the meeting.

The following comments were made:

• The Committee asked whether there was an accompanying action plan i.e. how would progress be monitored.  In response the Chief Executive stated that all actions are monitored through WECA’s Business Plan.  Each specific project had actions regarding the delivery of that scheme;
• Every decision should be assessed against the climate emergency and carbon neutral target.  Every project should contribute towards reducing the 2030 carbon neutral goal with the possibility of scrapping projects that did not meet the criteria.  Each project could be listed with a ‘plus’ or ‘minus’ score;
• It was not clear whether the West of England was the first Combined Authority to move such a motion and the Chief Executive would investigate further;
• As different declarations had been made in different local authorities (Bristol City Council’s for instance spoke about Scope 1 2 & 3) the Committee expected the Mayors and Leaders to reach common ground on the issue;
• The Committee also requested that specific plans be brought back within six months and a regular progress report be brought to this Committee;
• The Committee asked that its comments be passed to the WECA Committee meeting on Friday 19 July 2019;

Agreed: That, while broadly welcoming the motion submitted by Mayor Bowles calling on the Combined Authority to declare a climate emergency at the WECA Committee meeting, the additional comments made be passed onto the WECA Committee ahead of its decision making.

Report enclosed.

The Committee considered the reports being submitted for endorsement at the WECA Committee and Joint Committee meeting on 19 July 2019 and made comments thereon.  The main points raised are set out below:

WECA Committee Agenda:

Item 11 - Combined Authority Governance & Constitution

The WECA Committee was due to consider proposed changes to Combined Authority governance and constitution.  There would be an overall reduction in the number of meetings with four boards, the LEP Board and the WECA Overview & Scrutiny Committee all advising the main Committees. The following comments were made:

·         Although broadly welcoming the governance proposals. the Committee expressed concern regarding late amendments sometimes made at the WECA Committee meetings, including at the last WECA Committee regarding Yate Park & Ride site, as this did not allow any proper pre-scrutiny;

·         There was also concern regarding the public speaking arrangements with no changes proposed regarding allowing supplementary questions at the WECA Committee;

·         Comments were also made regarding the call-in procedure and how such a ‘call-in’ was deemed ‘reasonable’;

·         No special urgency arrangements had yet been invoked;

·         It was also mentioned in regards to the pay policy that WECA’s pay ratio was around 7:1. This was welcomed by Members;

Item 12 – Combined Authority and Mayoral budget outturn – April - May 2019

The WECA Committee was due to consider the forecast revenue and capital financial outturn budget monitoring information for the Combined Authority and the Mayoral budget for the financial year 2019/20 based on actual data for the period April 2019 to May 2019.  The following comments were made:

• Malcolm Coe, Director of Finance stated that due to Treasury Management the Combined Authority’s income had been higher than anticipated but as that function was moving in-house a small number of extra staff would now be needed;
• The AEB Budget had been fixed but a marker had been put down for future years, a situation that had also happened at other Combined Authorities;
• It was confirmed that there were no building society holdings and mainly short term investments had been made with local authorities.  Other options were always considered but safety ratings were the guiding principle;

Item 13 – Integrated ticketing – Future work

The Combined Authority would receive a report on the proposed next stages of the Integrated Ticketing project.  The report asked the committee to note the proposed initial drawdown of £300k to progress with the phase 1 officer support / potential external consultancy support, and delegate approval of the detail of the award through a Feasibility and Development funding application to the West of England Combined Authority Chief Executive in consultation with the West of England Chief Executives.

The report also sought agreement for the Combined Authority’s Section 73 officer to lease

equipment to small bus operators at less than the market rate as set out in the contactless

upgrade Full Business Case and subject to state aid regulation compliance.  The following comments were made:

• As London was ahead in the integrated ticketing was the West of England  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report enclosed.

The Committee discussed its work programme.  Formal meetings would continue to be held just before the main Committee meetings.

A query was raised regarding how the WECA Overview & Scrutiny meeting could take a more active role in scrutinise LEP Board activities.  It was replied that the Committee’s role included scrutiny of the LEP Board and the four new boards minutes would be submitted to the main Committee meetings.