Agenda item - Investment Fund

Report enclosed.

The West of England Combined Authority Committee RESOLVED

(unanimously):

1. To approve the Full Business Case for Wraxall Road Roundabout Signal Scheme and award of £5.199m subject to finalising the economic case and Monitoring and Evaluation Plan.

2. To note the award of £548k of funding for the West of England Station Enhancements Project through DfT’s Access for All programme and the allocation of up to £552k match funding through the Investment Fund, subject to business case.

3. To approve the Feasibility and Development Funding Application for the Bus Strategy Infrastructure Programme and award of £1.5m to progress a Full Business Case.

4. To approve the Feasibility and Development Funding Applications set out in Appendix 2 and award of £1m.

5. To delegate approval of the detailed scoping of the Strategic Rail Investment and Bus Strategy Infrastructure Programme development work to the WECA Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the Directors of the constituent councils.

6. To approve the change request and award of £585k of Love Our High Streets funding for the Keynsham Town Centre project subject to confirmation that all funding is in place and the Monitoring and Evaluation plan is extended to cover the additional outputs/outcomes.

7. To delegate grant giving for Workforce for the Future to the WECA Chief Executive in consultation with the West of England Chief Executives.

8. To decline the request for a further £300k of development funding for the Bath College Digital and Creative Innovation Centre.

9. To approve the change requests for schemes within the current programme as set out in Appendix 3.

The Combined Authority Committee considered a report setting out the latest proposed approvals in relation to the Investment Fund (agenda item 15).

The Chair highlighted the following specific approvals sought through this report:

· The Full Business Case for the A4174 Wraxall Road roundabout signal scheme, a programme that would help alleviate congestion in the area and had been requested by public transport operators.

· The award of a further £1.5m into our region’s bus network; specifically, this funding would improve infrastructure in the city centre of Bristol.

· Investment in railways, including £250k to put together a strategic plan for future improvements and enhancements to the region’s network and £552K to improve stations in the West of England and start bringing them up to the new MetroWest standard.

· A recommended allocation of £585k of Love Our High Streets funding for the Keynsham town centre project.

The report recommendations were moved by the Chair and seconded by Cllr Reade.

Cllr Reade welcomed the Full Business Case for the A4174 Wraxall Road roundabout signal scheme; the roundabout suffered from serious congestion at peak times at this strategically important location on the ring road. The scheme would help to improve traffic flows and journey reliability, including buses. He also welcomed the investment proposed in the report to improve railway stations.

Cllr Romero welcomed the allocation which would enable improvements to be implemented at Keynsham town centre. In general terms, it was important to be aware that investment in schemes and projects across the region may help open up the potential to link in with future government funding opportunities.

Cllr Godwin welcomed the investment in the bus strategy infrastructure programme and drew attention to the importance this could have in helping to get bus services back on track given the current emergency situation.

The Chair then moved to the voting on the recommendations, noting that recommendation 2 was for information only.

Voting took place as per constitutional requirements.