Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - South Cambs Hall. View directions

Contact: Graham Watts  03450 450 500 Email: democratic.services@scambs.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES

To receive any apologies for absence.

Decision:

Councillor...sent / There were no Apologies for Absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received by Councillors Brian Burling, Simon Crocker, Neil Davies, Caroline Hunt, Alex Riley, Bunty Waters and David Whiteman-Downes.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received. 

3.

The East Anglia Devolution proposal pdf icon PDF 229 KB

It is recommended that Council:

 

(a)        Considers and endorses the conclusions and outcome of the Governance Review, (attached at Appendix A), that the establishment of a Combined Authority with a Mayor for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area would be likely to improve the exercise of statutory functions in that area.

 

(b)        Approves, in principle, the content of the Devolution Deal proposal, (attached at Appendix B), and to formally confirm that this replaces in its entirety the East Anglia Devolution Agreement signed in March 2016.

 

(c)        Approves, in principle, the Governance Scheme, (attached at Appendix C), and request the Chief Executive undertakes appropriate consultation on its content.

 

(d)        Resolves to convene a meeting of Full Council to take place in October 2016 to consider whether to support, in principle, the granting of consent for the Secretary of State to bring forward such an Order to establish a Mayoral/Combined Authority covering that area of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Additional documents:

Decision:

Council:

 

(a)        Considered and ENDORSED the conclusions and outcome of the Governance Review (attached at Appendix A of the report) that the establishment of a Combined Authority with a Mayor for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area will improve the exercise of statutory functions in that area.

 

(b)        APPROVED, in principle, the content of the Devolution Deal proposal (attached at Appendix B of the report) and formally confirmed that this replaces in its entirety the East Anglia Devolution Agreement signed in March 2016.

 

(c)        APPROVED, in principle, the Governance Scheme (attached at Appendix C of the report) and requested the Chief Executive undertakes appropriate consultation on its content.

 

(d)        RESOLVED to convene a meeting of Full Council to take place in October 2016 to consider whether to support, in principle, the granting of consent for the Secretary of State to bring forward such an Order to establish a Mayoral/Combined Authority covering that area of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

 

(e)        REQUESTED that the Civic Affairs Committee examines and makes recommendations on the methods for this Council to be able to scrutinise the decisions taken by the Combined Authority and the actions of the Council’s representative(s) on the Combined Authority.

 

Minutes:

Council considered a report which set out the results of the governance review undertaken in relation to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area.  A copy of the governance review document was appended to the report, together with the content of the proposed devolution deal and the draft governance scheme which outlined the key governance structures of a proposed Combined Authority.

 

Councillor Peter Topping, Leader of the Council, proposed that Council:

 

(a)        considered and endorsed the conclusions and outcome of the Governance Review (attached at Appendix A of the report) that the establishment of a Combined Authority with a Mayor for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area would be likely to improve the exercise of statutory functions in that area;

(b)        approved, in principle, the content of the Devolution Deal proposal (attached at Appendix B of the report) and to formally confirm that this replaces in its entirety the East Anglia Devolution Agreement signed in March 2016;

(c)        approved, in principle, the Governance Scheme (attached at Appendix C of the report) and requested the Chief Executive undertakes appropriate consultation on its content;

(d)        resolved to convene a meeting of Full Council to take place in October 2016 to consider whether to support, in principle, the granting of consent for the Secretary of State to bring forward such an Order to establish a Mayoral/Combined Authority covering that area of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

 

Councillor Topping stated that if the motion was agreed by this Council and other authorities in the area then the matter would move to public consultation, returning to the Council for further consideration later in the year.  He took this opportunity to thank officers of those authorities involved for the hard work they had undertaken within challenging deadlines on the devolution deal and paid tribute to Councillor Ray Manning as former Leader of the Council for his contribution and the negotiations he had led with the Government in respect of devolution.  He also extended his thanks to all Members of the Council who had contributed through informal briefings and discussions on devolution held in the lead up to this meeting.

 

Councillor Topping made the following points in presenting his motion:

 

·         the taxable revenue a prosperous Cambridge and surrounding area would bring into the exchequer was one of the reasons why the Government was seeking to devolve power;

·         the proposed governance model of a Combined Authority with an elected Mayor would give power to people and take it away from Westminster;

·         the elected Mayor would be accountable and would be a person who brought things together, responded to issues and worked with the Combined Authority to make things happen;

·         subsequent devolution phases to this initial devolution deal could be achieved and developed further, with Manchester given as an example of a City in its fourth phase since its originally devolution deal was agreed;

·         the devolution deal currently included £100 million for housing to address the needs of residents in the area;

·         affordable housing was something that residents desperately needed in South Cambridgeshire,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.