Agenda and minutes

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).

The evacuation procedure was noted

Apologies were received from Councillors Streatfeild-James and Addison.

The Monitoring Officer advised that as the Committee was meeting with less than the number of members present to be quorate decisions could be ratified by the Committee and endorsed by the next meeting.

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.

Cllr Kent declared a personal non-pecuniary interest as the report at agenda item 14 of the Combined Authority Committee references a road improvement plan on Hengrove Lane, where he resides. He also declared a personal non-pecuniary interest in agenda item 12 of the Combined Authority Committee having been employed as a consultant for solar farms but noted it was not within the region.

Cllr Plowden declared a personal non-pecuniary interest as Director of the National Cycle network – Sustrans.

Councillor Kent proposed and amendment to the minutes to read that he was ‘invited to speak as part of the public forum but was prevented from doing so’.

The Chair proposed that this be amended to read: ‘Councillor Kent was prevented from speaking at part of the public forum but was invited to speak and present his statement under item 11 of the agenda’.

Having not reached an agreement, it was agreed that a form of word be drafted for agreement at the next Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

Resolved: that the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 8 September 2023 were deferred to the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee as they could not be ratified due to the meeting being inquorate.

To receive any Chair’s announcements.

The Chair noted he was satisfied that North Somerset Councillors (listed as observers) would by convention, have speaking roles at the Committee.

Following the discussions at the previous meeting, a training programme for Audit and Scrutiny members from Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) was being costed and it was anticipated that this would involve a day’s commitment from members.

As the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny would be given the opportunity to make comments on behalf of the Committee at the Combined Authority Committee on the 6^th October 2023, feedback would be noted during the meeting, for presenting at the Committee.

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 Tuesday 26^th September 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 29^th September 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.

The Chair noted that ten questions had been submitted by members of the public. Written responses had been provided and are available on the website.

The following people submitted their statements and were given the opportunity to address the Committee;

·         Mr David Redgewell

·         Mrs Bobby Oliver

·         Francis Bennett

·         Mandy Parry

·         Robbie Bentley

·         Rosa Kell

Following the statements given, the Chair noted that whilst bus franchising was not specifically an item for consideration on the agenda for the Combined Authority Committee on the 6 October 2023. However, given the level of public interest in the report commissioned into bus franchising for West of England Combined Authority feedback to the Committee would be given noting requests from the public that the report be published as early as possible.

He further noted that public feedback had firmly alluded to the fact that poor public transport should be viewed as a public health and equality issue which he would also include in his feedback to the Combined Authority Committee.

To review the reports / decisions due to be considered at the 6 October 2023 meeting of the West of England Combined Authority Committee and West of England Joint Committee and formulate any comments to refer to the committees.

The Interim Monitoring Officer introduced the report which provided the Overview & Scrutiny Committee with a list of the reports due to be considered at the 6 October 2023 meetings of the West of England Combined Authority Committee and the West of England Joint Committee.

Report authors and other relevant officers gave a brief summary of their reports:

Delivery Assurance:

A letter was being drafted by the Chair of the Committee and would be circulated to all the Chairs of Scrutiny in the Unitary Authorities, to ensure a co-ordinated oversight of any anticipated delays to projects delegated to their respective authorities.

It was encouraging to see that capacity- building was happening across both delivery and project staffing and noted the Committee were also encouraged by the rigor in identifying issues and potential slippages of projects.

Common themes or issues surrounding the delays should be flagged early

with an accessible dashboard of information and exception reporting that could be shared across all these arrangements. There may be a need to look at capacity across the region for contractor availability to ensure sound programme management was in place.  

Climate and Ecological Strategy and Action Plan Update

Specific carbon metrics need to be given consideration in every aspect of decision making across all the Unitary Authorities and the Combined Authority; need to be able to measure climate impact.

Continued political pressure needs to be applied to National Grid to help address the significant delays and shift towards de-carbonisation and more renewable energy.

The Climate Emergency Action Plan is an extensive, comprehensive plan; it would be beneficial to see a dashboard or grading system where focus was placed on the significant impacts being.

Whilst the larger corporate bodies were mostly committed to this, it was positive that a lot of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) were also engaged in their commitment to tackling climate change.

Adult Education and Skills

Some concern that the Combined Authority were unable to forecast funding allocation for 2024/25 under the new Adult Skills Fund as the Department for Education had not yet confirmed regional allocations.

Needs to be a continuation in the investment for children with an Education, Health and Care Plan and those with special educational needs support needing assistance as young adults, transition into employment.

Transport Infrastructure Projects

CRSTS

Some concern about the deliverability of the CRSTS even with the re-scope of the programme and questions were raised whether keeping the M32 programme was achievable, given that the M32 programme was expensive with a high degree of risk.

The A4 corridor programme was progressing well and that the longer-term vision would potentially form part of a future programme and reassurance was given that this would be aligned with the Future4West programme.

Future4West: 

Some concerns about the lack of a carbon analysis despite a substantial amount of work already having taken place. Assurance was given that a Carbon Assessment Toolkit was in development.

There was a need to focus on realistic options that would prove to be future-proof and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Members to receive an update on the progress of the BSIP Task and Finsih Group.

The Chair updated the Committee and explained that a BSIP Task and Finish Group had been help on the 8^th September 2023 and a further one arranged for the 9^th October 2023. One of the main outcomes of the discussion was that the price of the tenders had increased significantly and the extension to 2026 meant that there would be little prospect of introducing new supported services. A performance dashboard for each month on BSIP would be made available to the members of the Task and Finish Group.

The Committee are asked to consider the Work Programme

The content of the work programme was noted.

Members invited to give feedback on the meeting

Officers were thanked for their attendance and presentations to the Committee.

The Chair requested early oversight of future Combined Authority Committee reports.