Issue details

A series of delegations to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) were approved through the WECA Committee and West of England Joint Committee on 19 June 2020 and 4 December 2020 as follows:

On 19 June 2020, it was agreed:
• To delegate the responsibility for agreeing procurement strategies for MetroWest 1b for detailed design and construction to the WECA and North Somerset Council CEOs, subject to funding.
• To endorse the change to scope (extension to Westbury to be progressed) for MetroWest 1a on the condition that the business case is produced and approved; and to delegate responsibility for approving the business case for this to the WECA CEO in conjunction with Unitary Authority (UA) CEOs.
• To delegate the responsibility for signing the Implementation Agreement for MetroWest 1a with Network Rail to the WECA CEO, in conjunction with UA CEOs, subject to funding.
• To delegate responsibility for signing Implementation Agreements for MetroWest 2 with Network Rail to the WECA CEO, in conjunction with UA CEOs, subject to funding.
• To delegate the approval of the Bristol Temple Meads Eastern Entrance Full Business Case to the WECA CEO, in conjunction with UA CEOs, to a maximum value of £26.645m (which included the £2.5m already awarded).

On 4 December 2020, it was agreed:
• To approve the project scope and value for money assessment and release of funding for the next phase of MetroWest Phase 1a (Severn Beach & Westbury Lines) works up to value of £1m from within the Investment Fund from within the agreed £116.4m of MetroWest Phase 1 budget to facilitate the start of enhanced services.

Further to these decisions, approval was sought in January 2021 under the agreed delegations for the delivery strategies for MetroWest Phase 1a (Severn Beach & Westbury Line), MetroWest 1b (Portishead Line), MetroWest 2 with the associated Implementation Agreement for Ashley Down station, and also for the Full Business Case for Bristol Temple Meads Eastern Entrance and the associated Implementation Agreement.

The Chief Executives of the 4 West of England unitary authorities were consulted on the proposals and were in agreement with the decision proposed for each of these projects.