Agenda item

To consider the attached report by Graham Hughes, Executive Director (Cambridgeshire County Council).

The Joint Assembly RECOMMENDED that the Executive Board approves the establishment of a Smarter Cambridgeshire work stream for Greater Cambridge, as outlined in Appendices A and B of the report, to be overseen within the City Deal governance arrangements.

The Joint Assembly considered a report which set out a proposal for a ‘smart cities’ approach within the City Deal programme to help support the delivery of improved transport, skills and housing and unlock further sustainable economic growth within Greater Cambridge.

Andrew Limb, Head of Corporate Strategy at Cambridge City Council, presented the report and referred to Connecting Cambridgeshire, a multi-agency programme established to address digital connectivity infrastructure shortfall and support better exploitation of digital technology across all sectors.  The Connecting Cambridgeshire programme included a number of work streams and one of those strands included the investigation of ‘smart’ technologies and its relevance for Cambridgeshire and, specifically, the City Deal programme. 

The Executive Board allocated £20,000 for two years to develop a smart cities work stream with a view to seeking bids for external funding.  A ‘smart cities’ workshop was held early this year with a number of local expert speakers and City Deal Joint Assembly and Executive Board representatives, where it was requested that a ‘Smarter Cambridgeshire’ proposal be developed.  Proposals had therefore been worked up and the initial objectives of the Smarter Cambridgeshire project, through to 2016, would be to:

·         generate an outline ‘smart architecture’ blueprint which would facilitate the delivery of a ‘test bed/demonstrator’ programme;

·         establish and deliver an initial one year test bed/demonstrator programme of work packages which implemented small scale ‘smart’ solutions, with a focus to transport related opportunities;

·         establish and participate in a wider forum for collaboration with and information exchange between complementary work programmes and other initiatives across the wider Cambridge research and development communities to develop and showcase the smart credentials and profile of the area;

·         investigate Government, EU and other funding opportunities and co-ordinate funding bids to develop the Smarter Cambridgeshire programme in both the short and medium term;

·         investigate and develop collaboration opportunities with other nearby cities, including Peterborough and Milton Keynes;

·         develop a longer term smart cities approach which reflects the level of ambition for Greater Cambridge.  This would complement and influence the emerging City Deal programme to ensure that smart characteristics were incorporated within the overall approach to housing, transport and skills as part of the delivery of the City Deal.

The following points were noted during discussion:

·         £20,000 seemed quite a small investment considering the proposed objectives.  It was noted that the key behind this work stream was to unlock further funding, working alongside and complementing the Connecting Cambridgeshire programme and organisations such as Cambridge Network.  Members of the Assembly were reminded that a significant amount of external funding was available to support the objectives of this project;

·         it was positive that the aspiration of the project was wider than the Greater Cambridge area, as people commuted into and visited the area from places further afield;

·         a question was raised as to examples of good practice from other smart cities.  Dan Clarke, from the Connecting Cambridgeshire team, reported that Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Milton Keynes had all demonstrated good practice and confirmed that he had already been in discussions with representatives from Bristol and Milton Keynes.

The Joint Assembly unanimously RECOMMENDED that the Executive Board approves the establishment of a Smarter Cambridgeshire work stream for Greater Cambridge, as outlined in Appendices A and B of the report, to be overseen within the City Deal governance arrangements.