Agenda item

2017/18 Budget Setting

Decision:

The City Deal Executive Board:

 

a)    AGREED to allocate additional or new resource to:

 

(i)            Developing up to 12 cycling ‘greenways’ in Cambridge City and 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.

(xii)        Implementation of residents’ parking schemes within Cambridge City (indicative maximum of £1.0m over 3 years).

 

b)    AGREED to consider later in the year the following indicative request and to develop a detailed business case to enable Board decisions:

 

(i)    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).

 

 

c)    NOTED:

·         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

 

Minutes:

Tanya Sheridan, City Deal Programme Director presented the report which sought the Board’s agreement to an allocation of resources for 2017/18 and for future years to support the City Deal’s objectives.

 

Councillor Roger Hickford updated the Board on the discussions which had taken place at the Joint Assembly meeting regarding this item. He informed the Board that the Assembly had raised particular concern regarding:

·         Electric vehicle charging points: The Joint Assembly asked for a further paper to be presented at its meeting in June 2017. Concerns related to value for money and that the charging points would be for taxi use only.

·         South Cambridgeshire travel hubs: It was felt that there was not enough detail regarding where these would be and what these would look like.

·         Strategic planning and transport framework: It was felt that not enough detail had been provided for such a large one-off spend.

·         Scaling up of the Smart Cambridge programme.

The Executive Board discussed the recommendations as set out in the report:

Regarding the cycling greenways project, the Vice Chairman praised the County Council’s cycling team. He informed the Executive Board that each greenway would be 5 to 6 miles long radiating out of the city to the surrounding villages, creating a network of cycling routes. Haslingfield Parish Council had expressed concern that the greenways may look unattractive. It was hoped that extra funding would be leveraged from government grants and other sources. The Board was informed that £480,000 funding would go towards the recruitment of more officers into the County Council’s cycling team to work on projects. This would lead to projects being shovel ready when big investments came forward. It was envisaged that 12 projects would be undertaken in total, with six in the first phase and a further six in the second phase. Deciding upon the location of the greenways would involve much work with parish councils, local communities and potential landowners. The wider benefit of the project would be linking communities and linking homes and places of work.

 

Regarding the City Access project, it was clarified that this was a commitment of New Homes Bonus funding. Hilary Holden provided a brief overview of the range of projects that this would fund. Funding would also go towards funding 7.4 full time equivalent staff who would be allocated amongst the eight delivery plans that were discussed by the Executive Board at its meeting in January 2017. The Board was informed that the 7.4 full time equivalent staff would be permanent resource within the City Deal team, sitting within partner organisations, but dedicated to the City Deal work. Consultancy resource would cover secondments and support for particular pieces of work, design and implementation.

 

Councillor Bates expressed support for the City Access project and noting the dramatic fall in traffic during school holiday periods, advised that a starting point be to look at initiatives with schools, such as car sharing around park and ride sites.

 

Electric vehicle charging points were discussed:

The Head of Environmental Health and Licensing, Cambridge City Council, provided further detail on the electric vehicle charging points project:

·         If all match funding was not achieved, funding from the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) would be £300,000. If all match funding was achieved, OLEV would provide £500,000 funding.

·         It was explained that the bid to OLEV specified electric taxis and private hire vehicles.

·         Cambridge City Council had approved £100,000 match funding, which was awaited.

·         If all funding was achieved, this would  provide 41 rapid and semi rapid charging points in Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire.

·         The phase 1 pilot study had found that if the infrastructure was in place, taxi operators would switch to electric and hybrid vehicles as this provided an economic benefit to them. The added benefit was that the scheme would improve air quality in the city.

The Vice Chairman expressed his support for the electric vehicle charging points, pointing out that the chargers were so expensive as they had to deliver the charge very quickly to taxis. He advised officers look into a Westminster Council project which was converting the base of street lampposts into chargers. In response to this the Board was informed that work was being undertaken with the County Council, to look at charging points for residents with off street parking. A bid to OLEV for this was being looked into.

 

The Chair thanked officers for the work that had gone into this project. Councillor Roger Hickford welcomed the report and the further information received from officers at the meeting, pointing out that had the Joint Assembly been informed of this detail, they may have raised fewer concerns regarding the project. Officers were asked to summarise this information and make it available to Joint Assembly members.

 

The Vice Chairman reminded the Executive Board that South Cambridgeshire District Council had passed a resolution in 2016, expressing interest in a railway station at Cambridge South.

 

Travel hubs were discussed:

Councillor Burkitt as South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Portfolio Holder for the City Deal, informed the Board that he had written to all South Cambridgeshire parish councils to seek their views on the idea of rural travel hubs in villages. Foxton, Meldreth, Shepreth, Whittlesford, Swavesey and Oakington had expressed interest in a travel hub being located in these villages. It was pointed out that all these villages were located near existing travel infrastructure. Councillor Burkitt informed the Board that he would be establishing who the landowners of potential locations of travel hubs were and would be seeking advice from South Cambridgeshire District Council planners regarding whether or not it was likely that planning permission would be granted for these. He felt that this was a practical bottom up planning and land ownership approach.

 

Councillor Bates expressed his support for travel hubs and felt that Network Rail extensions to some of these stations could add weight. He advised starting with the areas where extensions were planned.

 

Mark Reeve spoke in support of this and asked that the City Deal consider looking into achieving a return on investment.

 

The Greater Cambridge strategic planning and transport framework was discussed:

Councillor Bates wanted to ensure the brief for this was wide and could be captured by the Combined Authority. In support of this Mark Reeve advised that it was ensured that this did not duplicate but supported what was being done elsewhere.  Stephen Kelly,  Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development, Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils, reassured the Board that dialogue was taking place to ensure this fitted with the wider context.

 

Councillor Hickford informed the Board that the Joint Assembly’s challenge to the City Deal had been regarding who should be leading this. The Chairman advised that the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development and his team, were leading on this.

 

The City Centre spaces and movement framework was discussed:

The Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development explained how this fit with the planning and transport framework. He made the following points:

·         Concerns regarding how the city was managed and curated long term in terms of spaces, amenities and roads across the city were being engaged with.

·         Much dialogue was taking place regarding quality of space and the choices made around road space and how people move around the city.

·         In response to a query from Councillor Burkitt, the Board was informed that the reason for the funding bid was for investment in significant external thinking regarding the quality of the city and the quality of space. The ambition was to talk to the best thinkers in these areas and the City Deal would be informed of who these were.

The scaling up of the Smart Cambridge programme was discussed:

Councillor Bates informed the Board that an extensive paper on this was being presented to the 9March 2017 Economy and Environment Committee meeting https://cmis.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/ccc_live/Meetings/tabid/70/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/397/Meeting/180/Committee/5/Default.aspx

 

The Executive Board was informed that a more detailed update on this would be provided at the September 2017 meeting. The City Deal Programme Director advised that there would be a need for dedicated staff to write the bids and scale up programmes. An update was requested on this for the June 2017 meeting.

 

Residents’ parking schemes within Cambridge City were discussed:

The Executive Board was keen for work to progress on this in May 2017 and decided that this be moved to the list of projects for allocation of resource, rather than being on the list of initiatives to be considered later in the year.

 

The City Deal Executive Board:

 

a)    AGREED to allocate additional or new resource to:

 

(i)            Developing up to 12 cycling ‘greenways’ in Cambridge City and 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.

(xii)        Implementation of residents’ parking schemes within Cambridge City (indicative maximum of £1.0m over 3 years).

 

b)    AGREED to consider later in the year the following indicative request and to develop a detailed business case to enable Board decisions:

 

(i)    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).

 

c)    NOTED:

·         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

 

Supporting documents: