The Director of City Development submitted a report which sought the Board’s consent on behalf of the Council, as Local Highway Authority, to the making of Regulations by the Secretary of State to establish Transport for the North (TfN) as a Sub – National Transport Body under section 102J of the Local Transport Act 2008.
RESOLVED –
(a) That the Board provide formal consent under section 102J of the Local Transport Act 2008 to the making by the Secretary of State of Regulations to establish Transport for the North as a Sub-National Transport Body, whilst also giving TfN concurrent highway powers with Leeds City Council as the local highway authority;
(b) That the resolutions made within this minute be exempted from the Call In process, for the reasons as detailed within section 4.6.1 of the ‘Legal Implications, Access to Information and Call In’ section of the submitted report;
(c) That the City Solicitor be instructed to notify the Department for Transport (DfT) of the decision made in respect of resolution (a) above.
(The Council’s Executive and Decision Making Procedure Rules state that a decision may be declared as being exempt from the Call In process if it is considered that any delay would seriously prejudice the Council’s, or the public’s interests. In line with this, the resolutions contained within this minute were exempted from the Call In process given that, as stated within the submitted report, the DfT has requested that Authorities confirm their decisions no later than the 20th October 2017. It was considered that the implication of not exempting such decisions from Call In could jeopardise the Authority’s ability to meet the deadline of 20th October 2017, which would prejudice the making of the Regulations and therefore the process for designating TfN as a statutory body. In addition, it was noted that the matter could not have been submitted to an earlier scheduled Board meeting, and therefore enabling it to be made available for Call In, as the DfT only confirmed on 21st September 2017 that the constituent Highway Authorities within those areas covered by a Combined Authority must also give their prior consent to the making of the regulations).