West of England Combined Authority Joint Committee – Friday 15 March 2024
Start time: 3pm
Date: Friday 15 March 2024
https://westofengland-ca.moderngov.co.uk/uuCoverPage.aspx?bcr=1
E e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e welcome everyone to this meeting of the Joint Committee I’m CLA Young from South
Ler Council and just to quickly introduce my committee colleagues I’ve got councelor Manda Rigby from barf nor Somerset Council who’s substituting for councelor Kevin guy mayor Marvin ree from Bristol city council and councelor Katherine Gibbons from North Somerset Council who’s substituting for councelor Mike Bell which is why I’m in the
Chair and also of course Richard boner from the local Enterprise partnership who is a non- voting member of the committee and we’ve also got the chairs of the overview and scrutiny committee Ed plowden and the audit committee councelor Jeff gollop attending um apologies for absence have been received from councelor Kevin guy
And councelor Mike Bal um so move to item two Declarations of interest do members have any interest to declare no in which case we move on to item three the minutes so for those who were present last time um I think is just actually just me isn’t it which is
Unfortunate um with my memory as it is I yes so I’m I’m happy to agree the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Committee held on 26 of January 2024 are true and a correct record I don’t have any corrections and I see no one else was diligently watching the uh the live
Stream and and making notes so um so are you happy for me sign those as a correct record thank youy for me to sign okay right okay um item four then items from the public there were six questions received the responses to these questions have been circulated to members of the
Committee and published on the authorities website in addition three statements were received these have been circulated and published on the authorities website too some members of the public are in attendance and can address the committee for up to three minutes each on the topic of their statements so um first I have Dave
Rell um the West being combined authorities and special measures but that also affects the way the lap is operated as well and obviously the ratio with North Somerset one of those things we do need to sort out is how we wind the lap into um combined Authority
That’s been going off far too long and we should have been done it doing it by now and the future of membership of North Somerset Council into the West the M combined Authority which needs to be sorted out as well absolutely and we should have been making progress on that
Urgently and it’s been delayed and that’s something needs to be picked up so the first thing is really the bip um Richard I thank you that we’re going to have the special meeting of the board um to discuss bip of but can I also request
That we have the the bip goes to the Joint Committee in the morning because remember it’s a joint uh Authority transport Authority bip with North suers Council so we need to get it signed off by North samet Council I as the pastor rep work for both authorities as your
Rep not just for uh wer so I’m very anxious to make sure that the voice of North Somerset are heard very clearly and obviously bringing North Somerset into the city region is something we should we need to do quickly and urgently um on uh public transport I’m
Very keen to see work on the hubs and making sure they’re fully accessible and making sure we have ctctv at the new hubs at htis head Clevon as well as the ones that we’ve already done in worldl and Western super May Transport Security is one of the biggest issues in the bip
Guidance uh along with disa and accessibility and also the need to have drivers so we need to be talking to first group about how we go forward with drivers recruiting and we’re short of Engineers so we need to be looking at how we’ve got more Engineers working on
The buses on the gigafactory that’s very important to North Somerset and wer we need to be looking at the transport plan for the gigafactory so that we actually can take people from South Bristol and bath and North Somerset into the factory at Bridgewater and that also means wer
Using its reler and Mal pass look at how we put the the rail Services into um the gigafactory at Bridgewater that would be Freight first and they may follow through with passenger those freight trains will run through the Western combined author North Somerset and go forward up to uh the West Midlands and
Sall so it’s something we need to Western Gateway and Peninsula on as well it’s quite important on I mean buses are still our biggest problem we need to make sure they link with West link West Link’s got a link across into the fulcon into the North Somerset bus Network and
Into the chu Valley okay and on rail then I’m looking for rail we need to get Western supermare station lifts working and new lifts in basically neli and back wheell still not fully accessible and passing streets not accessible and obviously we need to be pushing forward Bridgewater and working with peninsul
Further west towards exitor so as the Port the airport are in Bristol are in North Somerset North Somerset need to be a fully combined member of this Authority we need to be working on that after the Bristal local elections thank you thank you very much um the next name
I have on the list is Rosa Kel but I believe this is Tina bigs um hello so um what actually happened was I was supposed to put a um statement in by yesterday I missed the deadline um I’m going to be shamed LLY using Rosa slot which I have actually um
Spoken on it last meeting so her her points are to do with buses Somerset CAP bus campaign um and I just record her thanks for the x91 to Valley but I’m just going to grab the microphone now um so um on on the the regional plan I I
Couldn’t agree more with Marvin about the need for a big bold integrated Vision um I think the thing that was most dismaying about um the west of England partnership was just the way that you know every every meeting you’d have this list of small projects small
Really small bits of money each and and and they not related to each other and and it was just sort of well we’ve got this post of money and and we’re going to make sure that our Authority gets enough money and that that was so dysfunctional and and um I you know that
I can see that’s that’s really what what my um Dan Norris has been trying to do is trying to make the whole place behave like a proper Regional Visionary big money transport Authority and you know Marvin’s brought so much Vision to that um so I am going to also um back up
What’s Marvin’s asking about mass transit please keep that Going For Heaven’s Sake um you know I I’m I’m happy to argue the toss about Gloucester Road whether that should have trams up it or not personally I’ve lived in groby for um two years and and really enjoyed
Using the trams um but then I didn’t have a bike at the time uh well I did have a bike and I did have an accident some rails say yes I take your point about tram rails and bikes um and I take your point about Clifton down um we have
A train service that goes straight under cliff and down so there is a precedent for some tunneling and as we’ve said before please keep tram trains the idea of actually taking the train off the track with a proper Junction so that that train then goes around the seven
Beach line or to Western super P’s head please put all of your support behind Porter’s head um it’s been going on far too long if feel there’s so many we we’ve they came to our AGM um the the team doing Porters headline please put that in it would be it’ll just transform
The whole the public perception of what can be done with trains and thank you trams um buses bus bus stops as we said thank you very much putting a bus stop next to Ashley down station um on Miller Road but let’s see one on Sheldon Road
As well just get put make that put that correct you know let’s get bus rail cycling all working together good modern city people out of cars thank you very much thank you very much your comments now the next person on next on list is Brendan Taylor and Becky but I imagine
That Dave is speaking on their behalf just for the benefit of um councelor Gibson um the reason that um Brendan Taylor is not here today is this V Brendan is a wheelchair user uh electric whech user he travels the brown Network extensively and travels around Metro
West I know he passes a lot of information into the team when things go wrong uh which is very helpful um but you can’t get there because the public transport doesn’t run here so just a plea for equalities and disabilities and please we need an equalities officer at the westlam combined Authority working
With North Somerset and we also need by the way a public sector person running your buses uh we’ve got we’ve got a consultant there now head of buses that needs to change as well as Richard I love you but we need a director that is permanent and we need a sister that’s
Permanent and not people are inter him um on the issue of accessibility then obviously you’ve made the points nelian backwell is not accessible Western superm is not accessible other than going across Barrel Crossings um Bridgewater is not accessible um and obviously pass accessible and we have the situation
Where we’re using Inter City Express trains on the local Services which when they go onto the platforms whech users can’t get on if they’re on the wrong platform and that is extraordinary I was with Andy Burnham a few weeks ago we had a long discussion about this and he says
It shouldn’t take 70 years to do accessibility in the west of England combined Authority or in the combined for for transport and trains it should be being done in 10 years and it should be done democratically and not be a carve up at the DFT as to which DEC
Aable group gets a station access or not and that includes trobridge and olfield park and Kum so just just to put that on record um I think everybody like to say thank you to Marvin for all the week work he’s done on pushing the qualities in Bristol and the issues around
Disability and access he certainly pushed that agenda but I know so is the so is the other four unit is I’m going to say it’s high on your agenda so I’m very pleased at that and you all have equality forums but again going back to buses we
Need to make sure the buses are accessible we need to make sure that PS headline is built I understand we need 50 million pound from the DFT we need to be working on the Imp Fox and working on Karen Smith and having push with the regional MPS to get that money out the
Department and signed up before the general election and also hopefully Ashton Gate station will be part of that in the future equally we need to make sure the Henry Loop line is also fully accessible and also is uh being uh funded and going into access we just
Still don’t have Lawrence Hill ston Road Parson Street back which are non accessible stations in our patch so I’m just asking the whole network is made as accessible as possible from an equalities point of view and can I make the point Andy Burnham says he starts his meetings with INE equalities report
And about access um perhaps we could have an equalities report on the public transport Network both it uh May mayor um May Norris’s meeting and the one shared by Mike Bell so we do have equality an equalities report on the agenda whether that’s diversity whether that’s black and ethnic minorities we do
Seem very white middle class for an area that’s not white middle class so that’s just a point I’d like to say thank you CL thank you very much Dave and I I know that my colleague councelor Chris Wilmore has been pushing the issue of the um equalities officer as I’m sure have
Others um then there’s no one else in the room who would like to speak from the public then item five chair’s announcements I’d like to ask the interim Chief exec to make a short statement thank thank you chair I mean it’s um probably appropriate and it’s
It’s um is relevant to the paper that we’ll receive as well um you will know from uh the statements made by uh Council B who was chairing the last meeting that we we not managed to reach agreement as is um highlighted in the in the uh paper uh as agenda item nine
Around the sort of the future of the Le and particularly the business um board that we um that we want to create because of the importance of business to uh many of the priorities we have not least uh not least driving uh growth in the uh economy in the uh in the region
We did uh we have received uh and you know that um both our mayor uh councilor Bell both wrote to the Secretary of State the right honorable uh Michael go we have received a response which we received uh late yesterday encouraging us to uh undertake new uh constructive uh uh
Negotiations uh in respect of having not been able to reach uh that agreement and has asked us to uh respond back to that within uh two weeks which we will uh clearly clearly do so we over the next two weeks will be undertaking those uh new constructive negotiations to uh
Endeavor to find uh the right uh solution for uh for for the region uh as as well really one other thing I would say is that the the Department’s officials uh the de officials uh department for um housing leveling up and communities have been as as ever incredibly supportive and helpful in uh
Helping us to uh to move this uh move this matter forward there is the risk as you’ll see in the paper later on around the 240,000 of funding that the government will supply to us that that is being withheld uh you know um you as
As as part of the uh what we will get if we get to a solution that’s acceptable for both sides so there is a a financial settlement which you is is worthy of us um continuing to make sure that we we work this forward and arrive at that um
That right answer for the region thank you very much and move then to item six comments from the chair of the local Enterprise partnership Richard thank you very much well first of all I’d just like to open by expressing our thanks to Marvin we we said a little bit
In the previous meeting but would just like to reiterate the thanks for your service over the last eight years and your contribution to all of the work across the west of England and in Bristol tackling those deep inequalities and setting some of those big picture visions and creating the impact in
Places like Temple quarter thank you you’ve heard from Richard that we have struggled to necessarily bring all of the attributes of our integration um but I would like to just say to members of the audience and Dave in particular we have been working really closely as elect board with the combined
Authority since the combined Authority was set up the Assurance framework the program sits within the combined Authority um the work that we undertake is often co-created with officers from both the combined Authority and the constituent members and so in a sense what we’re seeking to do is transition to new Arrangements but build
On the great work and the legacy of the last 10 or so years of the local Enterprise partnership and we were really pleased to see that the government published a clear paper that business engagement in economic growth activity is vital bringing the business voice the university voice to support
Engage with local authorities and the public sector is uh is in vital and I think we’ve proven over the 10 or so years of local Enterprise partnership that actually that co-working uh delivers um really really good outcomes so yes we do want to see this matter resolved quickly The Business board members are
Wholeheartedly committed to working with supporting Partners to deliver that outcome and we have said before uh but we’ll reiterate that we would like to see North Somerset Council become part of the combined Authority in due course recognize however that there are processes for for that to take place but
Our functioning economic area is the full unitary uh full unitary Authority areas I’d also like to reiterate the point Marvin made in the previous meeting that actually when you start to look at how the economy functions more widely our engagement with the Western Gateway is becoming increasingly
Important when we look at some of the studies about how the econom is working things like cybertech we connect from gler Shire to Bristol to uh South Wales when we look at the opportunities for energy out of the seven Esty and the commission that was launched this week
You can see how we can collaborate much more widely so we have to work together well the best value notice has given us a reminder that we’ve got to solve that problem and again we want to work with colleagues to to address that but actually it’s not just co-working across
The west of England it is looking out more widely with our partners because that’s how we will Leverage Advantage for our citizens and our residents in being able to create economic um opportunity and um tackling inequality thank you thank you very much um item seven is comments from the authorities overview
And scrutiny committee um be published and circulated prior to the meeting is there anything you’d like to to add yeah just quickly um we disappointed with the lack of progress in determining how the LA will be integrated into the workings of the combined Authority as mandated by government and particularly
How the voice of business will be heard in the west of England and play its part across the sub region and Beyond in delivering outcomes uh symptomatic of The Wider governance issues and we look forward to seeing how these are resolved including the long-term relationship with noret Council it’s disappointing that the
Funding from government is withheld but this is really a relatively minor issue compared with the importance of a satisfactory long-term arrangements and to EO mayor Reese uh satisfactory long-term ambition uh we urge it’s a bit late now but we urge mayor Norris to play his role appropriately in the
Process and a good start would be attending the Joint Commission committee to build trust and demonstrate a commitment to finding agreeable Solutions thank you thank you very much and next item item eight comments from the authorities audit committee councelor gollop would you like to say anything yeah thank you um members will
We’re glad to know I’m not going to repeat my comments the previous meeting so apologies to councelor Gibbons that I won’t be going through all that but but I think I think your colleagues will probably be relieved um but I just want to add the lap integration great
Disappointment to audit committee um it it is fundamental we’ve seen the really positive role not just as Richards here but that the left have played in the process and we have to find a way and this is part of the issues raised by the best value nce of finding resolutions to
To to what to be in soluable problems but where actually there should be enough common ground to make progress um that links in to one of the key issues of the of the best value notice regarding the Constitution which not surprisingly is impossible to deliver when you need a constitution that covers
Three authorities four authorities a lap and all sorts of things with different bers for each of them I I don’t think one could make a bigger challenge for the monitoring officer to re a constitution if one tried we could have a go I suppose and see if we could make
It harder but but it just seems to me the Constitution has to work and we need find ways of simplifying what goes into that and I make the comment not from a political point of view but from a logical point of view the idea of having three authorities in the majority of
What Wacker does and four for the joint committee is absolute Madness as a resident who is concerned about the pressures of traffic coming into the City of Bristol we need a solution that includes all four authorities in everything we do it’s easy to say that as chair of audit committee I recognize
It’s a lot harder for officers and our leaders to deliver it but I’m only saying it’s a critical issue that needs to be resolved and my residents and loads of other residents don’t understand why it’s not the case so can we add that to the pragmatic list of
Things that urgently need to be resolved thank you thank you very much um so item nine um the LEP and investing Bristol and barath ivv forecast 2023 24 this report represents the revenue and capital for forecast of the west of England Joint Committee for the financial year
2324 Based on data from the period April 23 to January 24 I would now like to move the recommendation as set out in the report can I please call for a second thank you Manda um would you like to speak now just to say that we are very supportive of the recommendations and
Grateful that it’s here but seeing as I have got the opportunity to speak um I am just going to reemphasize how really key uh we in Banes feel that it is that we do get to a stage where we are talking about four not three in terms of unitary
Authorities do any other members wish to speak to this item no did so just goingon to comment because I I agree actually I I’ll just go over a conversation I had with Tim BS way back when as the the result was coming up and and and this is about us being honest
About the nature of our our area and having a you know a plan I mean the two the couple of things that we said at the time was we do need to expand uh but one is we are different as authorities perhaps Bristol is maybe a bit more different and and there have
Been you know historic even I worked in the NHS what’s the crossborder interest here right um so as a city there are particular things about the nature of our patch that we lead that might be different levels of diversity intensity density uh congestion and so forth so
What we I would just suggest that whatever politicians representing Bristol end up sitting around the table wherever they’re from will have the challenge of saying a couple of things uh one is how if we come together if if amongst the three authorities three have very strong rural interests how do we
Make sure that the urban interest doesn’t get drowned out in any vote at any particular point in time now that’s not about that’s not setting divisions up it’s about saying the same way conversation I had with Toby Savage back in the day let’s be honest that your
Preferred options are not ours ours are not all yours but we have a problem to solve how do we get it solved recognizing our differences and that’s going to be uh that that rural urban differ is incredibly important I was involved with a piece of work with the
RSA recently called the urban future commission and it was about the future of the UK cities you can find the report I suggest it was a good piece of work um and what we said was we need to find a way of talking about cities that is not
Cities or towns it’s cities and towns towns and cities and understand how we work with their interdependence so so our the City’s population by residency is about 475 during the working day we go over a million right so that and and bear in mind some people will leave Bristol to
Go and work in London whatever so you might say we probably we let’s be safe and underestimate about half a million people coming into the city each day that’s half a million people living in surrounding areas that we need to be healthy whether they’re in Yates or nail
Or bar we need them to be healthy and have good quality of lives there because they’re working in businesses in the city but also their Banes South glass nor suet need their employment to be good in Bristol so that interdependence is something that we have to uh to get our
Heads around but but so so we it’s something I would say we need to be really clear there was also this we also raised an issue at the time as well which is about the actual funding pot at the C Authority so it seemed that some
Sometimes we have to come to this it’s felt that sometimes like say 9 Pound got sent down we just say well let’s just split it three ways because they’re all the same well that’s not a strategic kind of data informed way of allocating money it’s not saying that anyone should
Should be important but if we had that sequence of investable propositions that we think lead us up to the place we want to be in 20 years time then we’re less sensitive about well it’s you get the money this year we should be in a place
Where we could say you know what that next we have seen that it’s actually delivering in Baines on this particular intervention that is needed in the next sequence so we’re relaxed about that we don’t need to come in and say go back and say well the money’s coming Bain has
Got some so we must come and get some of that money because we’ve agreed on a narrative we’re going be uh the journey we’re going to go on which comes back to that point about a strategic review going up I I think if we did someone at work then that would offer assurances
Within Bristol that they wouldn’t end up as the the a city surrounded by three rural areas at anyone point in time could get drowned out three to one you know in a vote I’m just saying it’s something that we need to to work through I I wasn’t oh hang on um would
You like to go first can’t come all this way and not speak I’m a politician um yeah I just wanted to say that I I do hear and and appreciate what Morin’s just said and I also appreciate the the will there seems to be for North
Somerset to become a full part of wer you know because personally I’m just speaking as a personal counselor that is obviously uh something I’d love to see um but in the right way the right circumstances and with the right governance in place obviously and I just
Wanted to say with regard to this paper that um you know item three notes that the core funding to support the integration is going to be withheld and obviously we have received the letter we’ve only just received it we note its contents um and we want to do whatever
We can to work in the most productive and positive way with May Norris to resolve this so that things can move forward to a mutual benefit so thank you thank you very much I I wasn’t going to speak on this but I just want to to respond to some of um Marvin’s comments
Because I think it’s important not to see this inovace of simplistic City versus three rural authorities because actually South gler has a very significant part that is on the urban Fring of Bristol it’s about 60% of the population live there and also is in many ways the economic Powerhouse for
The the region um it’s got the some very significant Industries such as Aerospace we’ve got the Bristol and B Science Park which ironically is in nether Bristol noar but is in fact in South gler um and I think I think um I mean manda’s already spoken but I’m sure you know
Would want to recognize that b is a city with um a different set of of needs and as as a a world heritage City and and no Sumer is then again different to South clire so I think it’s really important that we recognize the strengths of each of our constituent authorities and and
That we don’t see it as a them versus us um and and we recognize that you know it’s it’s important to be able to get people to the north Fringe in South gleria it’s important to be to be able to get people in that a bath um and and
To Weston and so forth so I think I think we need to we need to be careful about seeing seeing them the authorities in very simplistic terms okay well didn’t say so you were I’m saying I’m saying that we should avoid simply simplistic um descriptions of the authorities anyway moving on then
Um so recommendations one and three don’t actually require a vot because they’re simply for noting so I’m just going to do a vote on recommendation two um and I’ve proposed it and Manda second it so can I have all those in favor thank you very much that’s carried
Unanimously um and that concludes our business today so thank you very much to everyone for attending and have a safe journey home for