Agenda item

David Trethewey - Director of External Affairs, B&NES will address the meeting.

The Director of External Affairs addressed the meeting a copy of his presentation is attached as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary is set out below.

WECA Committees & Boards

A Joint Committee and a WECA Committee are in place and are supported by the respective Mayors, Leaders and CEOs.

Four Advisory Boards are also in operation – Skills Board / Business Board / Transport Board / Housing & Planning Board. A representative from B&NES Cabinet sits on each of the Advisory Boards.

The WECA Committee is chaired by the Regional Mayor, Dan Norris, and is made up of the leaders and Mayor from the three councils in the region – Bath & North East Somerset (Cllr Kevin Guy), Bristol City Council (Mayor Marvin Rees) and South Gloucestershire Council (Leader, Cllr Toby Savage).

The Chair of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Richard Bonner, also attends committee meetings.

West of England Combined Authority objectives

Contribute to providing strong collective leadership and strategic direction to realise the full economic potential of the West of England.

Support the development and delivery of key strategies to improve the economic conditions across the West of England area.

Ensuring arrangements are in place to report the proposals and activities of the Combined Authority to the constituent councils.

Provide a formal and accountable forum for decision making relating to all relevant West of England Combined Authority functions.

WECA Core Strategic Functions

·  Transport

·  Planning and Housing

·  Skills

·  Employment

·  Finance

Transport Functions

The West of England Mayoral functions:

•Prepare a Local Transport Plan including:

·  Strategic infrastructure delivery plan

·  Bus strategy; including all quality partnership arrangements and Bus Services Bill Powers, for example franchising

·  Key Route Network (management and maintenance principles)

The West of England Combined Authority functions:

·  Power to deliver Grants to the UAs for the exercise of highway functions.

·  Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) powers:

o  Concessionary fares

o  Provision of local bus information

o  Community Transport

West of England Combined Authority and Unitary Authority Joint functions:

·  Subsidised services -Socially necessary bus services

City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) Programme

Transport Corridors

·  Bristol to Bath (A4)

·  SomerValley to Bristol and Bath (A37 and A367)

·  Bath City Centre bus priority, walking and cycling

Walking and Cycling

·  Lots of community connections along the corridors

·  Plus priority schemes from the Local Cycling Walking Infrastructure Plan

Planning & Housing Functions

The West of England Mayoral functions:

·  Combined Authority (Mayoral) Spatial Plan (from May 2018)

The West of England Combined Authority functions:

·  Promote the establishment of a Joint Assets Board for the West of England

WECA Overview & Scrutiny Committee

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee shall have the power to:

·  Review or scrutinise decisions made, or other actions taken, in connection with the discharge of any functions which are the responsibility of the Combined Authority or the Joint Committee;

·  Provide advice and challenge on policy and programme delivery to help ensure the region meets its climate commitments, including monitoring the delivery of the authority’s Climate Emergency Action Plan.

·  Make reports or recommendations to the Combined Authority or the Joint Committee (as appropriate) on matters that affect the Combined Authority area or the inhabitants of the area;

The Chair commented that he had recently attended meetings relating to the A4, A37 and A367 Transport Corridors.

The Saltford Parish Council Clerk said that community engagement with WECA must get better and asked why do they not respond to questions or concerns raised by the Parishes. She added that very little time was given to the recent Bus Transport consultations, to the extent that they had formed the view that it could be unlawful.

The Director of External Affairs replied that he would follow this up with WECA to check their understanding of the role of the Parishes and how they work. He added that he would support where possible the need to strengthen community engagement.

Councillor Duncan Hounsell said that he felt the ownership should be on WECA to make these connections. He added that WECA needs to engage proactively with Parish/Town Councils and asked if Parish Councils could have a list of contact details for key WECA officers.

He said that it was not good enough to only allow around 10 minutes for a discussion on Zoom relating to the A4 Transport Corridor.

The Chair said that the comments made would be fed back via officers and that he hoped improvements would be made in the near future regarding consultation, engagement and meetings.