Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, First Floor

Contact: Democratic Services  03450 450 500 Email: democratic.services@scambs.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Chairman

To appoint a Chairman for the Executive Board.

Decision:

Councillor Lewis Herbert was APPOINTED as Chairman of the Executive Board.

Minutes:

Councillor Lewis Herbert was APPOINTED as Chairman of the Executive Board.

2.

Appointment of Vice-Chairman

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the Executive Board.

Decision:

Councillor Ray Manning was APPOINTED as Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board.

Minutes:

Councillor Ray Manning was APPOINTED as Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board.

3.

Apologies for absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

No apologies for absence were received.

4.

Declarations of interest

To receive any declarations of interest from Members of the Executive Board in respect of any items on this agenda.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were made at this stage of proceedings.

5.

Notes of the previous meeting of the City Deal Shadow Board pdf icon PDF 182 KB

To agree the notes of the previous meeting of the City Deal Shadow Board held on 10 December 2014 as a correct record.

Minutes:

The notes of the meeting of the Greater Cambridge City Deal Shadow Board held on 10 December 2014 were AGREED as a correct record.

6.

Public questions pdf icon PDF 39 KB

To receive any questions from members of the public.  The standard protocol to be observed by public speakers is attached.

Minutes:

Questions were asked and answered as follows:

 

Question by Antony Carpen

 

Mr Carpen asked:

 

“What conversations will the Executive be having with the Haverhill Rail Campaign and Suffolk and Essex County Councils regarding their highly advanced proposals to re-link Haverhill to Cambridge and further link it to Colchester and Chelmsford, making a possibility of direct rail services between two ARU campuses a possibility?”

 

Graham Hughes, Executive Director of Economy, Transport and Environment at Cambridgeshire County Council, highlighted that one of the potential schemes around the A1307 involved linking towards Haverhill, as he had outlined at the meeting of the Joint Assembly on 12 January 2015, and all options along the corridor would be explored as part of the scheme.  He added that this particular issue had been looked at over a number of years and some difficult practical issues to overcome had already been identified, but that discussions would continue to be held on this matter.

 

Question by Antony Carpen

 

Mr Carpen asked:

 

“I have not seen any publicity around explaining to people what this Board or the Assembly is – feedback on social media hasn’t been positive and has reflected lack of communications and democratic legitimacy.  Any comments?”

 

Councillor Lewis Herbert, Chairman, outlined that meetings of the Shadow Board had been held in public in the lead-up to this first meeting of the Executive Board which, together with meetings of the Joint Assembly, would also be held in the public domain. 

 

It was also noted that a microsite was in the process of being developed for the Greater Cambridge City Deal and that this would be launched very shortly at www.greatercambridgecitydeal.co.uk

 

Councillor Steve Count, Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, felt that the Executive Board and wider governance arrangements around the City Deal did have democratic accountability embedded within them.  He had been democratically elected as a Councillor, as the other Council representatives had been, who had subsequently been appointed onto the Board at meetings of Full Council by their respective authorities.  He argued that it was not clear how much more democratically accountable the body could be expected to be.

 

Councillor Count was also disappointed that people had not picked up on information about the Greater Cambridge City Deal.  A range of stakeholder events had been held, numerous press releases had been issued and articles had been included in Council magazines on the subject of the City Deal.  He added, however, that more people should be encouraged to engage.

 

Question by Antony Carpen

 

Mr Carpen asked:

 

“Are the Greater Cambridge City Deal Executive Board and Joint Assembly suitable for residents to hold Cambridge University and its member colleges accountable to the people of Cambridge and not just its members?  What would Cambridge University’s decisions be like if within its core values it held itself responsible for all of the people of Cambridge and not just its members?

 

Professor Jeremy Sanders, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Institutional Affairs at the University of Cambridge, outlined that the mission of the University was to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Joint Assembly co-opted Members

To ratify the City Deal Shadow Board’s endorsement at its last meeting of the following co-options onto the Joint Assembly:

 

Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership     

Sir Michael Marshall (Marshall Group)

Claire Ruskin (Cambridge Network)

Andy Williams (Astra Zeneca)

 

University of Cambridge

Anne Constantine (Cambridge Regional College)

Jane Ramsey (Cambridge University Health Partners – Addenbrookes)

Helen Valentine (Anglia Ruskin University)

 

Decision:

The Executive Board RATIFIED the Shadow Board’s endorsement of the following co-options onto the Joint Assembly:

 

Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership     

Sir Michael Marshall (Marshall Group)

Claire Ruskin (Cambridge Network)

Andy Williams (AstraZeneca)

 

University of Cambridge

Anne Constantine (Cambridge Regional College)

Jane Ramsey (Cambridge University Health Partners – Addenbrookes)

Helen Valentine (Anglia Ruskin University)

 

Minutes:

The Executive Board RATIFIED the Shadow Board’s endorsement of the following co-options onto the Joint Assembly:

 

Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership     

Sir Michael Marshall (Marshall Group)

Claire Ruskin (Cambridge Network)

Andy Williams (AstraZeneca)

 

University of Cambridge

Anne Constantine (Cambridge Regional College)

Jane Ramsey (Cambridge University Health Partners – Addenbrookes)

Helen Valentine (Anglia Ruskin University)

 

8.

Reports and recommendations from the Joint Assembly pdf icon PDF 231 KB

Councillor Tim Bick, Chairman of the Joint Assembly, will be in attendance to present a report and recommendations from the meeting of the Joint Assembly held on 12 January 2015.

 

A copy of the draft minutes from the meeting on 12 January 2015 are attached.

Minutes:

Councillor Tim Bick, Chairman of the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly, provided the Executive Board with a verbal report on the meeting of the Assembly held on 12 January 2015 and its recommendations to the Board.  The draft minutes from that meeting were circulated, for information.

 

Councillor Bick reported that the main item considered by the Assembly was the 2015-20 prioritised infrastructure investment programme.  The Assembly put forward the following amendments to the programme:

 

(a)          the removal of the Bourn Airfield / Cambourne busway scheme from the tranche 1 priority programme as a priority scheme, assuming that capital expenditure for delivery of this scheme did not occur in the first five years of the City Deal programme but that the technical evaluation work could still be undertaken on the full corridor;

(b)          the removal of the heading ‘reserve schemes’ so that the table included all schemes and did not refer to any as reserve schemes;

(c)          the estimated cost of the Foxton level crossing and interchange scheme being amended from £14 million to £0, to reflect that this would be funded by an external source and not from City Deal funding;

(d)          the amendment of the title of the A1307 bus priority / A1307 additional Park & Ride scheme to read “A1307 corridor to include bus priority / A1307 additional Park & Ride”.

 

The programme, subject to these amendments, was recommended to the Board and had been reflected in table 1 of the covering report for item 9 at this meeting.

 

The Assembly also considered a report on the funding of City Deal non-project costs, and supported the recommendations contained within the report subject to the inclusion of a £150,000 cap in respect of the delegated authority given to the Chief Finance Officer at the County Council.  It was therefore recommended to the Executive Board that:

 

(a)        the pooled resources of the three local authorities be used to fund those specific items set out in section 6 of the report for 2015/16;

(b)        a more detailed budget for 2015/16 be considered by the Joint Assembly at its next meeting;

(c)        the three local authorities be requested to make initial budgetary provisions within their respective medium term financial strategies in line with the contents of the report;

(d)        the Chief Finance Officer of the County Council be given delegated responsibility to incur any essential expenditure pending the agreement of a detailed budget appertaining to the functions contained within the report, subject to a cap of £150,000;

(e)        the Executive Board is asked to consider additional opportunities for the use of pooled resources at a future meeting.

9.

2015-20 prioritised infrastructure investment programme pdf icon PDF 179 KB

To consider the attached report.

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Executive Board APPROVED the Greater Cambridge City Deal’s 2015-20 prioritised infrastructure investment programme, made up of the following schemes:

 

-       Milton Road bus priority

-       Madingley Road bus priority

-       Histon Road bus priority

-       A428 to M11 segregated bus route / A428 corridor Park and Ride

-       City centre capacity improvements / cross-city cycle improvements (to include Hills Road in the scope)

-       A1307 corridor to include bus priority / A1307 additional Park and Ride

-       Chisholm Trail cycle links / Chisholm Trail bridge

-       Year 1 to 5 pipeline development

-       Year 6 to 10 programme development

-       Programme management and early scheme development

 

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Executive Board with an opportunity to agree priority schemes for the transport infrastructure investment programme for delivery from 2015/16 to 2019/20 as part of the Greater Cambridge City Deal.

 

Graham Hughes, Cambridgeshire County Council’s Executive Director of Economy, Transport and Environment, delivered a presentation on the concept of the Greater Cambridge City Deal and the infrastructure investment programme.  He highlighted that the Greater Cambridge area was a truly internationally competitive city and region, that it had unique characteristics known commonly as the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’ and that it had a global scale concentration of high-tech industries but  that future growth was threatened by congestion and housing. 

 

The vision of the City Deal was noted as being to realise the economic potential of the area, to unleash the next wave of the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’, to improve connectivity and enhance reliability of journeys.

 

The infrastructure investment programme had been drawn from Local Plans and the Transport Strategy and City Deal funding would be delivered in three tranches over 15 to 20 years.  In terms of the first five years of investment, the focus would be on maximising network benefits, maximising economic benefits and deliverability.

 

It was noted that the Greater Cambridge City Deal Joint Assembly considered the schemes on 12 January 2015 and broadly accepted the recommendations for the prioritisation methodology and high priority schemes, as reported by the Chairman of the Assembly at this meeting in the previous item.

 

The process for assessing the prioritisation of schemes consisted of a high level economic analysis of schemes that had been undertaken to identify relative economic benefits and deliverability.  The recommended programme drew together results of assessments to help inform a robust and deliverable programme to 2020 to achieve the aims of the City Deal.  Taking into account the amendments put forward by the Joint Assembly, table 1 of the report set out a list of schemes totalling £260.59 million. 

 

Mr Hughes confirmed the process for scheme development that would be followed going forward.  Schemes would be developed via an iterative process with significant consultation, including a baseline survey, data gathering and options development, an options report and outline business case, a decision on the preferred option to develop, full business case development, a decision to deliver a scheme, statutory processes as applicable and construction.  A shorter process for smaller schemes was likely to be introduced.

 

The need to develop schemes for later stages of the City Deal was emphasised.  Technical work for schemes in years six to fifteen could run alongside the development of schemes in years one to five.

 

Councillor Lewis Herbert, Chairman, invited Members of the Board to consider the recommendations of the Joint Assembly.  The Board supported the recommendations but felt that the priority list of schemes was too large at £260.59 million when only £100 million was available for the first five years of the Deal.  It was acknowledged, however, that allocating schemes in excess of £100 million would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Funding of City Deal non-project costs pdf icon PDF 244 KB

To consider the attached report.

Decision:

The Executive Board:

 

(a)       AGREED that the pooled New Homes Bonus resource, as set out in the report, be used to fund the non-project costs required to support the successful delivery of the City Deal programme.

 

(b)       NOTED that funding from this source was a commitment for 2015/16 only and that any further funding would be subject to a formal budget statement presented to the Board prior to the start of each financial year.

 

(c)       AGREED that a detailed budget for 2015/16 would be considered by the Executive Board at the next meeting.

 

(d)       AGREED that the three local authorities be requested to make initial budgetary provisions within their respective Medium Term Financial Strategies in line with the contents of the report, subject to the on-going availability of New Homes Bonus to the levels set out in the report.

 

(e)       AGREED that the Chief Finance Officer of the County Council be given delegated responsibility to incur any essential expenditure pending the agreement of a detailed budget appertaining to the functions contained in the report, subject to a cap of £150,000 for the financial year.

 

(f)        AGREED to consider additional opportunities for the use of pooled resources at a future meeting.

 

Minutes:

The Executive Board considered a report which sought agreement, in principle, to the pooling of local authority resources in order to provide the necessary resources to support the delivery of the programme that could not be capitalised through individual projects.

 

Chris Malyon, Cambridgeshire County Council’s Chief Finance Officer, presented the report and referred the Board to the table in the report which set out the current projections of receipts that would derive from New Homes Bonus funding from the three partner Councils and could be made available for pooling purposes.  It was emphasised that the allocation of these sums would be subject to the ratification of the respective Councils during their forthcoming budget deliberations and approvals.

 

At this stage, the following costs had been identified as non-project relating activity that would require funding to ensure the successful delivery of the City Deal programme:

 

·         central coordination;

·         strategic communications;

·         economic assessments/triggers.

 

It was reported that the detailed resource requirements for the above functions had not been fully evaluated, but a detailed set of budget proposals would be developed and set out in a future report to the Joint Assembly and Executive Board.  An initial budget would be available for reporting to the next meeting of the Assembly.

 

Other non-project costs that were already being, and would continue to be, absorbed by the three partner Councils were noted as follows:

 

·         democratic governance;

·         legal and audit services;

·         financial services;

·         programme leadership.

 

It was noted that the Joint Assembly had recommended that a cap of £150,000 should be put in place on any essential non-project relating expenditure incurred with regard to the delegated authority given to the County Council’s Chief Finance Officer. 

 

The Executive Board:

 

(a)       AGREED that the pooled New Homes Bonus resource, as set out in the report, be used to fund the non-project costs required to support the successful delivery of the City Deal programme.

 

(b)       NOTED that funding from this source was a commitment for 2015/16 only and that any further funding would be subject to a formal budget statement presented to the Board prior to the start of each financial year.

 

(c)       AGREED that a detailed budget for 2015/16 would be considered by the Executive Board at the next meeting.

 

(d)       AGREED that the three local authorities be requested to make initial budgetary provisions within their respective Medium Term Financial Strategies in line with the contents of the report, subject to the on-going availability of New Homes Bonus to the levels set out in the report.

 

(e)       AGREED that the Chief Finance Officer of the County Council be given delegated responsibility to incur any essential expenditure pending the agreement of a detailed budget appertaining to the functions contained in the report, subject to a cap of £150,000 for the financial year.

 

(f)        AGREED to consider additional opportunities for the use of pooled resources at a future meeting.

 

11.

Work programme

To discuss the Executive Board’s work programme and schedule of future meetings.

Minutes:

The Executive Board AGREED the below schedule of meetings:

 

-       Friday 27 March 2015, 2pm

-       Wednesday 17 June 2015, 2pm

-       Tuesday 4 August 2015, 2pm

-       Wednesday 9 September 2015, 2pm

-       Thursday 1 October 2015, 2pm

-       Tuesday 3 November 2015, 2pm

-       Thursday 3 December 2015, 2pm