Agenda and minutes

To seek nominations for the position of Chair.

It was proposed and seconded that Councillor Swift be appointed to Chair the North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Joint Committee and upon being put to the vote it was;

RESOLVED – That Councillor Swift be appointed as the Chair of the North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Joint Committee.

To consider any appeals in accordance with Procedure Rule 15.2 of the Access to Information Rules (in the event of an Appeal the press and public will be excluded)

There were no appeals against the refusal of inspection of documents.

To identify items which have been admitted to the agenda by the Chair for consideration.  (The special circumstances shall be specified in the minutes)

There were no formal late items, however Members were provided with an updated page 4 of the agenda which set out a replacement table within the financial report. In addition to this Members received a letter from the Finance Director at Welcome to Yorkshire in respect of a Funding Agreement between this Committee and Welcome to Yorkshire.

To highlight reports or appendices which officers have identified as containing exempt information, and where officers consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons outlined in the report.

2  To consider whether or not to accept the officers recommendation in 

  respect of the above information.

3  If so, to formally pass the following resolution:-

RESOLVED – That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following parts of the agenda designated as containing exempt information on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information, as follows:-

There was no exempt information for consideration by the Committee.

To receive apologies for absence (If any)

There were no apologies.

To disclose or draw attention to any disclosable pecuniary interests for the purposes of Section 31 of the Localism Act 2000 and paragraphs 13 -18 of the Members’ Code of Conduct.  Also to declare any other significant interests which the Member wishes to declare in the public interest, in accordance with paragraphs 19 - 20 of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of any pecuniary interest made at the meeting, however both Councillors Cooper and Les brought it to the Committees attention that they were Board Members of Welcome to Yorkshire.

To consider a report by the Chief Officer Financial Services, Leeds City Council which sets out:

a)  The context in which the North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Pool has been set up;

b)  The governance arrangements and agreement for the North and West Yorkshire Pool;

c)  The current position of the North and West Yorkshire Pool, including the estimated 2019/20 financial position and the latest income projections;

d)  The proposed spending commitments for 2019/20;

e)  Further potential commitments for 2019/20;

f)  The proposed approvals required for funding provided by the Pool, including the proposed Accountability Framework for funding applications.

(Report attached)

Members considered an amended report that set out;

a)  The context in which the North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Pool has been set up;

b)  The governance arrangements and agreement for the North and West Yorkshire Pool;

c)  The current position of the North and West Yorkshire Pool, including the estimated 2019/20 financial position and the latest income projections;

d)  The proposed spending commitments for 2019/20;

e)  Further potential commitments for 2019/20;

f)  The proposed approvals required for funding provided by the Pool, including the proposed Accountability Framework for funding applications.

Members discussed in detail the various elements of the report and some Members asked that for future rounds of bidding it be recognised that not all authorities had directly benefitted from funding associated with the various cycle races and others required it to be noted that they had incurred additional expenditure as a result of the cycle races taking place in the region.

Members also discussed the timeline for bids and provisionally felt that bids should be submitted by mid September 2019 and considered by this Committee in October 2019.

RESOLVED –

a)  To note the context and structure of the North and West Yorkshire Business Rates Pool as described in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the report;

b)  To approve the Governance Agreement and Terms of Reference set out in Paragraph 3 and Appendices A and B of the report subject to the addition of an additional bullet point at 4.1 - Carbon Reduction of the Governance agreement;

c)  To note the projected Pool income for 2019/20 as shown in Paragraph 4 and Appendices C and D of the report;

d)  To note the report and approve the items of expenditure set out in Paragraph 5 of the report, subject to

·  The payments to Welcome to Yorkshire being made quarterly

·  and the comments from Cllr Aspden in terms of authorities not directly benefitting from cycle races being noted

e)  To note the potential areas of expenditure at Paragraph 6 in the report and that a further meeting of this Committee be held to consider the Welcome to Yorkshire Business Plan prior to approving payment of the Grant;

f)  To note the different areas of expenditure described in Paragraph 7.1, of the report and approve the proposed funding processes as laid out in Paragraph 7.2 of the report, particularly noting WYCAs role in this process and a provisional bid submission deadline of mid September 2019. 

g)  To approve the Accountability Framework noted in Paragraph 7.3, and set out in Appendix E, subject to the addition of ‘Carbon Reduction’.

Consider any other business (If any)

No other items for discussion.

To determine a date and time for the next meeting of the Joint Committee

Members considered the date and time of the next meeting and agreed that 2 meetings should be scheduled;

RESOLVED – That dates be established as follows;

1  Early September 2019 to consider the Welcome to Yorkshire Business Plans – it was acknowledged that this meeting may eventually need to be cancelled.

2  Early October 2019 to consider any bids.