Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Suzanne Ogborne, Email: suzanne.ogborne@westofengland-ca.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Evacuation Procedure

In the event of a fire, please await direction from the 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 Evacuation Procedure was noted.

 

2.

Apologies for absence

To receive apologies for absence from Members.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence had been received from Cllr Brian Allinson (South Gloucestershire Council) and Cllr Peter Crew (North Somerset Council).   Cllr Andrew Varney was thanked for attending on behalf of Bristol City Council.

 

3.

Declarations of Interest under the Localism Act 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 no declarations of interest declared.

 

4.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 79 KB

To consider and approve the minutes from 23 January 2023 of the West of England Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 27 January 2023 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

5.

Chair's Announcements

To receive any Chair’s announcements.

Minutes:

The Chair made no announcements.

6.

Items from the Public (Questions, Statements and Petitions) pdf icon PDF 228 KB

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 7 March 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 Friday, 10 March 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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Two questions had been received from one member of the public in advance of the meeting.  These questions and replies had been published on the Authority’s website and had been circulated.

 

In addition three statements had been received from members of the public in advance of the meeting.  One member of the public attended the meeting to submit their statement in person: David Redgewell, South West Transport Network and Railfuture Severnside.  Adam Reynolds had also submitted a statement but had been unable to attend the meeting.  However, the Chair asked for it to be read out as it contained important information about the CRSTS allocation.  A statement had also been submitted by Ian Beckey, Gloucestershire Catch the Bus Service Campaign and Brendon Taylor, Bristol Disability Equalities Network & Somerset catch the bus campaign.  The statements had been published on the Authority’s website and had been circulated.

 

The Metro Mayor Dan Norris attended the meeting and participated in a question and answer session with Members of the Committee.  Issues from the statements included:

 

·       Cllr Geoff Gollop noted that the issues referred to by Mr Adam Reynolds had been raised at Audit Committee and internal audit were looking at aspects of this during the course of this year. He requested that the statement be referred to internal audit.

 

·       Cllr Ed Plowden mentioned concern about a liveable neighbourhoods approach, noting that Government guidelines state that “largely cosmetic” approaches are not a suitable use of Active Travel budgets, and there was a risk that Mr Reynolds’ comments about B&NES and the near-doubling of a budget in Bristol might be questioned as to whether it was a legitimate use of the funding.

 

It was agreed that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would monitor the process of the £540m spend, noting the importance of officers synching on this matter.

 

Direct Response Transport and West link

 

Members queried when the West Link website would be launched since the scheme commenced in 3 weeks. It had been noted that there would be a need for effective communication and promotion, particularly in those areas losing bus services.

 

The Metro Mayor advised that overall, these pots of money had a very small window of spend, for instance a couple of years in relation to the Bus Service Improvement Plan. A longer lead in time would be preferred with West Link but the funding would be lost if not used and officers had been working hard to ensure the window would be met.

 

Members noted that West Link was not a substitute for all the subsidised buses that had been cut. The Combined Authority (CA) was working with the Unitary Authorities (UAs) to create a system irrespective of cuts. Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) would pick up people from virtual bus stops or local bus stops and take them to the main routes. This was why there had been a big investment to improve the frequency on the main routes. However, it was noted that it was not going to meet the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Review of items for 17 March 2023 West of England Combined Authority Committee pdf icon PDF 88 KB

To review the reports/decisions due to be considered at the 17 March 2023 meeting of the West of England Combined Authority Committee.

Minutes:

The Committee discussed the following reports due to be considered by the West of England Combined Authority Committee at its meeting on 17 March 2023:  Audit Action Plan: Feedback from Audit and Overview & Scrutiny Committees and progress report; Climate and Ecological Strategy and Action Plan 2023; and the West of England Combined Authority and Mayoral Budget Forecast Outturn 2022/2023.

 

The comments made by the Committee were collated and circulated to members of the West of England Combined Authority Committee in advance of its meeting. 

 

Agenda Item 15. Audit Action Plan: Feedback from Audit and Overview & Scrutiny Committees and progress report

 

Cllr Geoff Gollop explained that Grant Thornton had produced a Value for Money report in November and officers had prepared an action plan. Audit Committee rejected this and a revised plan was submitted in December 2022, seeking advice on how to move forward. This was the first stage of the process.

 

Solace have carried out their fact finding and summarised the challenges. For members’ benefit, it was fair to say the Solace report and the extent of the issues raised were larger than potentially anticipated. Looking at the views from members, it was not anticipated that enough resources would be available to achieve what was being suggested. The positive response from officers in recognising the problems identified and trying to engage in finding solutions was welcomed. It was an ongoing problem that the leadership wanted to resolve in a constructive way.

 

Cllr Steve Smith commented that the report was very good and covered a lot of issues. He said it was positive about the changes that the Interim Acting Chief Executive Officer had made.  However, he was not convinced that the delivery of every item on the action plan would solve the problem. The fundamental purpose of the Combined Authority should be to drive strategy which in turn drives tactical decisions, but it does not have a strategy. What we have is a series of running battles on every decision that comes along. He was not convinced the Constitution being amended to require unanimity equipped the CA to deliver on a strategy either. He felt that the structure and the Constitution needed to be looked at to deliver on the potential there.

 

Members expressed concerns about the time running out on North Somerset Council joining the Combined Authority. Operationally there were challenges though, such as relationships, the fate of the Local Enterprise Partnership, and elections. The Interim Director of Law and Governance (Monitoring Officer) reminded members that most of the Constitution provisions were hard wired into the Order which would require parliamentary or Secretary of State consideration. This Order was probably the most restrictive of all on what was the relationship and functions of the CA, but even if consensus was obtained, we would still have to go back to Government to ask it to change the statutory arrangements.

 

Members noted that financial reports needed to demonstrate how we achieve economic growth. Solace’s report did not mention green or carbon  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.