Agenda item

The Joint Assembly RECOMMENDED that:

1.    The Executive Board agrees to allocate additional or new resource to:

(i)    Developing up to 12 cycling ‘greenways’ in South Cambridgeshire (£480K for development work over 2 years (2017 – 2019)).

(ii)   City Access project – invest £5.045m to accelerate the delivery of the eight point plan. The need for significant resources was detailed in paragraph 13 of the January 2017 Board report. It enables the parallel and balanced progression of the eight delivery plans, including prioritisation of a parking strategy (£250K) and required staffing resources (£702K).

(iii)  Co-investment in electric vehicle charging points across Cambridge (£100K  one off cost in 17/18).

(iv) Travel audit to support case for Cambridge South Station and future transport requirements for the Biomedical Campus (£150K one off cost in 17/18).

(v)  Initial feasibility work on South Cambridgeshire Travel Hubs, including on key routes (£100k one off cost in 17/18).

(vi) Strengthening programme management, governance, strategy and coordination capacity and funding finance and Democratic Services support (£339K over 3 years, mostly up front investment).

(vii)Strengthening public engagement and communications by investing in better systems, capacity and expertise (£338K over 3 years).

(viii)               One year funding to Cambridge Promotions Agency to transition to fully-funded model (£40K).

(ix) Greater Cambridge strategic planning and transport framework – towards 2050 (£230K one off cost in 17/18).

(x)  City Centre spaces and movement framework (£150K one off cost in 17/18).

(xi)Scaling up the Smart Cambridge programme and attracting further investment in data and technologies (£1.640m over 3 years). It will focus on three aspects:(a) Better quantity, quality and use of data to improve information available to citizens, (b) Embedding digital solutions and emerging technology in City Deal work streams to ensure long term sustainable success, and (c) A collaborative approach that uses the power of digital technologies to galvanise  the business, community and academic sectors to work  together  and use their combined strengths to produce better outcomes for Greater Cambridge.

2.            That the Executive Board considers later in the year the following two indicative requests and to develop detailed business cases to enable Board decisions:

(i)    Implementation of Residents’ Parking Schemes within Cambridge City (indicative maximum of £1.0 m over 3 years).

(ii)   Scaling up original pilot skills work on stimulating business demand for apprenticeships and improving careers advice in schools into second phase of activity and investing in a wider reach (indicative maximum of £2.1m over 3 years).

3.    That the Executive Board notes:

·           The financial position, including that all partner authorities have agreed to contribute 40% of their respective New Homes Bonus (NHB) allocation from 2017/18 to 2019/20.

·           That if the proposed allocations are approved, this would mean an over-allocation of existing available resources of £4.8m, which would have to be treated as a managed  risk to be offset with either new Tranche 2 funding, other funding, or reductions in agreed schemes in future years. Given over half the Infrastructure Programme budget is forecast to be spent beyond 2020 this is considered an appropriate strategy to maximise outcomes within available resources.

·         The “Programme management and early scheme development including Tranche 2 prioritisation” budget has been reduced from £10.45m to £4.95m.

·         That further to the Financial Strategy agreed last November, all infrastructure Schemes profiles have been updated to reflect the latest estimated forecast of expenditure across the years, with total forecast spend unchanged (except in “Programme management and early scheme development”, see above, which has reduced).

·         The existing £3m “City centre capacity improvements” budget has been moved into the Operations Budget along with the proposed new funding so it is all in one place.

·         That all existing commitments will be reviewed on an annual basis to inform financial profiling and prioritisation of resources.

·         That funding is treated flexibly between the Infrastructure Budget and the Operations Budget, where necessary, to maximise the use of resources.

·         In 2018, a two year budget will be developed in order to align with external factors e.g. Gateway Review

The City Deal Programme Director presented the Budget Setting 2017/18 report which Joint Assembly members discussed.

Councillor Cuffley commented that investment in the Smart Cambridge programme seemed low and asked if the budget could be reviewed. The City Deal Programme Director advised that the investment would do much to support the smarter aspects of the transport strategy and that for the time being, this was the investment that was needed. The Joint Assembly was informed that the £1.6 million investment had the potential to leverage further funding, including EU funding, and that further proposals coming forward would not be ruled out.

In response to a question from Councillor Smith, the Joint Assembly was informed that:

·         The revenue to fund the strengthening of City Deal programme management, governance, strategy and coordination capacity and funding finance and democratic services support, would come from the new homes bonus.

·         The operations and infrastructure budgets were kept separate.

·         The Gateway Review referred to in the report would be an economic assessment by the Government on City Deal and development schemes.

·         It was agreed in November 2016 that there should be allocations for finance and democratic services support for the City Deal.

·         Officers clarified that some schemes could go into either the operations or infrastructure budgets.

In response to concern raised by Councillor Smith regarding the short term nature of interim support to the City Deal, the City Deal’s Interim Chief Executive informed members that part of her remit was to look at the long term fit for purpose structure, and to plan for the future.

Councillor Smith requested an up to date list of all City Deal officers and their contact details be provided to Joint Assembly members.

Chris Tunstall was introduced to the Joint Assembly as the City Deal’s Interim Transport Director.

Councillor Smith pointed out that the risk of achievability of S106 receipts was only marked as amber on the risk register.

In response to Councillor Bick’s question regarding government triggers, the Joint Assembly was informed that the triggers were:

1.    Whether the City Deal was on track and on budget according to final business cases.

2.    If anything had already been delivered, whether it had delivered the benefits that were outlined in the project’s final business case.

3.    Whether investment and infrastructure delivered had delivered economic growth. The Government acknowledged that this was hard to measure.

In response to a question from Councillor Kavanagh, the Joint Assembly was informed that the £100,000 investment would deliver four electric vehicle charging points and that the City Council had put in place a strategy for affordable and convenient electric vehicle charging points strategy. Joint Assembly members expressed surprise and concern at the cost of the four charging points, which would only be for use by taxis. In response to this concern members were informed that the initial £100,000 investment would trigger further funding, which would result in 19 fast and 21 rapid charging points. Members were informed that the City Deal and City Council would each provide £100,000 of funding and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) would provide £350,000. The Joint Assembly was reminded that the City Deal was contributing to a wider project and that further information on the electric vehicle charging point strategy and its delivery, would be circulated to members.

In response to concern raised that the electric vehicle charging points would only be for taxis, it was explained that the rationale for this was that the city’s diesel taxi fleet contributed significantly to pollution in Cambridge.

The Chairman requested a paper on electric vehicle charging points be presented to the Joint Assembly in June 2017, to include costings and the vision for charging points for residents.

Councillor Bick expressed concern for the potential for councils to claim money from the City Deal to deliver services for which they were responsible. Whilst it was hoped this would not happen, Councillor Bick asked how the City Deal would gate keep this. In response to this the City Deal Programme Director highlighted the challenge sessions referred to in the report, which would challenge whether projects were additional to existing projects and whether they delivered the City Deal objectives.

Concern was raised by a number of members that not enough information was available in the report to allow the decisions being requested to be made:

·         Councillor Smith expressed particular concern about this in relation to electric vehicle charging points and rural transport hubs, and advised that these be omitted until further information had been presented.

·         Councillor Bick advised that the Joint Assembly should have reports presented to it regarding the strategic planning and transport framework, before spending was agreed.

·         In response to concern raised by Councillor Bick regarding the lack of business cases, the City Deal Programme Director advised that the provision of proportionate business cases had been agreed, with more detail being provided as appropriate. The Interim Chief Executive informed members that where the Executive Board was being asked to commission feasibility studies, these would be presented on completion along with further proposals and business cases.

·         In response to the concerns raised, the City Deal Programme Director drew the Joint Assembly’s attention to the appendix to the report which set out the business cases and analysis of the proposals for additional spend. The Joint Assembly was informed that reports would be brought back to the Joint Assembly regarding bigger projects that required bigger spends.

·         The City Deal Programme Director referred to the projects listed in the appendix to the report, providing clarification to Joint Assembly members on what the Executive Board was being asked to agree to regarding each project.

·         In relation to the concerns raised by some Joint Assembly members regarding a lack of information and business cases, Helen Valentine pointed out that more detail regarding each project was provided later in the report and advised that the charging points project be proceeded with, but that a report be brought back to the Joint Assembly at a later date regarding larger scale roll out of charging points for private electric vehicles.

The Joint Assembly was informed that a bid had been submitted for a project to look at the joining up of networks and systems in order to make best use of pollution monitoring data. Councillor Baigent expressed a wish to see pollution level indicators displayed on the street in order to make the public aware of pollution levels.

Following the discussion and debate, the Chairman summarised the concerns raised by the Joint Assembly as regarding:

·         Investment in electric vehicle charging points across Cambridge

·         Feasibility work on South Cambridgeshire travel hubs

·         The Greater Cambridge strategic planning and transport framework

·         Scaling up the Smart Cambridge programme programme and attracting further investment in data and technologies.

Taking into account the concerns raised, the Joint Assembly RECOMMENDED that:

1.    The Executive Board agrees to allocate additional or new resource to:

(i)    Developing up to 12 cycling ‘greenways’ in South Cambridgeshire (£480K for development work over 2 years (2017 – 2019)).

(ii)   City Access project – invest £5.045m to accelerate the delivery of the eight point plan. The need for significant resources was detailed in paragraph 13 of the January 2017 Board report. It enables the parallel and balanced progression of the eight delivery plans, including prioritisation of a parking strategy (£250K) and required staffing resources (£702K).

(iii)  Co-investment in electric vehicle charging points across Cambridge (£100K  one off cost in 17/18).

(iv) Travel audit to support case for Cambridge South Station and future transport requirements for the Biomedical Campus (£150K one off cost in 17/18).

(v)  Initial feasibility work on South Cambridgeshire Travel Hubs, including on key routes (£100k one off cost in 17/18).

(vi) Strengthening programme management, governance, strategy and coordination capacity and funding finance and Democratic Services support (£339K over 3 years, mostly up front investment).

(vii)Strengthening public engagement and communications by investing in better systems, capacity and expertise (£338K over 3 years).

(viii)       One year funding to Cambridge Promotions Agency to transition to fully-funded model (£40K).

(ix) Greater Cambridge strategic planning and transport framework – towards 2050 (£230K one off cost in 17/18).

(x)  City Centre spaces and movement framework (£150K one off cost in 17/18).

(xi)Scaling up the Smart Cambridge programme and attracting further investment in data and technologies (£1.640m over 3 years). It will focus on three aspects:(a) Better quantity, quality and use of data to improve information available to citizens, (b) Embedding digital solutions and emerging technology in City Deal work streams to ensure long term sustainable success, and (c) A collaborative approach that uses the power of digital technologies to galvanise  the business, community and academic sectors to work  together  and use their combined strengths to produce better outcomes for Greater Cambridge.

2.            That the Executive Board considers later in the year the following two indicative requests and to develop detailed business cases to enable Board decisions:

(i)    Implementation of Residents’ Parking Schemes within Cambridge City (indicative maximum of £1.0 m over 3 years).

(ii)   Scaling up original pilot skills work on stimulating business demand for apprenticeships and improving careers advice in schools into second phase of activity and investing in a wider reach (indicative maximum of £2.1m over 3 years).

3.    That the Executive Board notes:

·           The financial position, including that all partner authorities have agreed to contribute 40% of their respective New Homes Bonus (NHB) allocation from 2017/18 to 2019/20.

·           That if the proposed allocations are approved, this would mean an over-allocation of existing available resources of £4.8m, which would have to be treated as a managed  risk to be offset with either new Tranche 2 funding, other funding, or reductions in agreed schemes in future years. Given over half the Infrastructure Programme budget is forecast to be spent beyond 2020 this is considered an appropriate strategy to maximise outcomes within available resources.

·         The “Programme management and early scheme development including Tranche 2 prioritisation” budget has been reduced from £10.45m to £4.95m.

·         That further to the Financial Strategy agreed last November, all infrastructure Schemes profiles have been updated to reflect the latest estimated forecast of expenditure across the years, with total forecast spend unchanged (except in “Programme management and early scheme development”, see above, which has reduced).

·         The existing £3m “City centre capacity improvements” budget has been moved into the Operations Budget along with the proposed new funding so it is all in one place.

·         That all existing commitments will be reviewed on an annual basis to inform financial profiling and prioritisation of resources.

·         That funding is treated flexibly between the Infrastructure Budget and the Operations Budget, where necessary, to maximise the use of resources.

·         In 2018, a two year budget will be developed in order to align with external factors e.g. Gateway Review