Agenda and minutes

Councillors Anderson, Lamb and Truswell

The Chair, Cllr. Harland welcomed everyone to this remote meeting of the Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Board which was the first Scrutiny Board to be live webcast.

The Chair went on to say as well as being the first time that this Board is holding a public meeting remotely, the Board’s membership has also been expanded for the purposes of today’s discussion surrounding the West Yorkshire Devolution Deal as we welcome, as co-opted members, the contribution of the Council’s other Scrutiny Board Chairs too.

To consider any appeals in accordance with Procedure Rule 25* of the Access to Information Procedure Rules (in the event of an Appeal the press and public will be excluded).

(* In accordance with Procedure Rule 25, notice of an appeal must be received in writing by the Head of Governance Services at least 24 hours before the meeting).

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

1  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:

  No exempt items have been identified.

There were no exempt items.

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 late items.

To disclose or draw attention to any disclosable pecuniary interests for the purposes of Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 and paragraphs 13-16 of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were made.

To receive any apologies for absence and notification of substitutes.

There were no apologies for absence from Board Members. However, apologies had been received from Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of the Council who unfortunately had not been able to attend the meeting.

To confirm as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting held on Monday 24th February 2020.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 24^th February 2020, were approved as a correct record.

To receive a report from the Head of Democratic Services which presents details of the published Scheme linked to the West Yorkshire Devolution Deal and invites the views of Scrutiny as part of the formal consultation process.

The report of the Head of Democratic Services provided the Scrutiny Board with details of the published scheme for the West Yorkshire Devolution Deal. The report invited the views of Scrutiny to feed into the formal consultation process.

In attendance at the meeting were:

·  Cllr Judith Blake – Leader of Council

·  Cllr. James Lewis  - Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Resources

·  Ben Still – Managing Director of West Yorkshire Combined Authority

·  Mike Eakins – Intelligence and Policy Manager

The Chair informed the Board that unfortunately Councillor Blake needed to leave the meeting at 11.00 am to attend another meeting with Government Ministers.  Councillor Blake was therefore invited by the Chair to give an initial introduction to the Board, along with Ben Still as Manager Director of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

As part of this introduction, the following points were made:

·  With each of the five West Yorkshire councils and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) endorsing the West Yorkshire ‘minded to’ Devolution Deal, the Executive Board then met on 19^th May 2020 to consider the outcome of the statutory Governance Review undertaken which had led to the development of a draft Scheme. In doing so, the Executive Board gave its approval to progress to the next phase involving public consultation on the draft Scheme.

·  This Devolution Deal is subject to adopting the model of a directly elected mayor over the Combined Area (West Yorkshire) that is, becoming a Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA). The first Mayoral election would be in May 2021.

·  It was noted that while it was regrettable that the Devolution Deal does not reflect the initial ask in terms of having a broader geographical footprint, the Combined Authority - as an MCA - will continue to explore opportunities for further collaboration with partner councils, including Harrogate Borough Council, Craven District Council, Selby District Council, City of York Council and North Yorkshire County Council, and across the whole of Yorkshire through the Yorkshire Leaders’ Board;

·  Linked to this, it was highlighted that the current pandemic had particularly emphasised the importance of positive collaborative working between all councils across the region and that this would therefore continue;

·  Importance was now placed on focusing efforts on the Deal going forward and to be in a position to formally sign the Deal later in the year.

·  The Deal details £1.8bn of government investment, which includes £38m per annum for 30 years into the West Yorkshire Investment Fund; £317m from the Transforming Cities Fund; having control over the £63m annual Adult Education budget; and becoming eligible to bid for a newly established Brownfield Housing Fund, with a £400m envelope.  Such funding would feed into key local priorities such as transport systems, bus franchising, and creating a West Yorkshire Digital Skills Partnership.

·  Leeds is also to receive a £25m fund for the development of the British Library North here in Leeds;

·  It was also noted that the Mayor will carry out the functions conferred on the Police and Crime Commissioner for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Wednesday, 1^st July 2020 at 3.00 pm (Pre-meeting for all Board Members at 2.30 pm)

The next meeting of the Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Board will be Wednesday 1^st July 2020 at 3:00 pm. (pre-meeting at 2:30 pm for all Scrutiny Board Members)