Councillor S J Conboy, Executive Leader to present on the activities of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority including a summary of the activities of the Transport and Infrastructure, Skills and Employment, Environment and Sustainable Communities Committees.
Councillors M A Hassall and J Neish to provide an update on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Councillor S J Corney to provide an update on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Audit and Governance Committee.
Decision summaries for recent meetings of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Audit and Governance Committee and Board are attached to the Agenda for information.
In accordance with the Protocol agreed at the February 2017 meeting, this item provides an opportunity for District Council Members to ask questions and comment on Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority issues.
If Members wish to raise questions or issues requiring a detailed response, it would be helpful if they can provide prior notice so that the necessary information can be obtained in advance of the meeting.
Decision Summaries – TO FOLLOW.
Contact:20 Minutes.
Minutes:
With the assistance of a PowerPoint Presentation (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book), the Executive Leader Councilllor S J Conboy presented an update of the activities of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA).
In doing so, Members of the Council were advised to read the monthly highlight report which summarised the activities of the Combined Authority and was available on the CPCA website, alongside their online recordings. Attention was also drawn to the new members of the Board and the new Chair of the Business Board – Mr Al Kingsley.
The CPCA were currently going through the Budget setting process and would for the first time align with the new Corporate Plan and the MTFS.
Councillor Conboy was pleased to report that progress on the Improvement Plan was now green overall and reiterated the need for this to have improved sufficiently to access any new devolution deal.
The Council were advised that the new Single Assurance Framework comprised a set of systems and processes which had been designed to provide confidence that the Combined Authority had the right infrastructure to make sound decisions.
In addition, a review of the Constitution had also included matters such as procurement, access to information, the co-option of members and independent persons which was designed to improve decision making processes and clarity.
The Executive Leader then turned to the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan. Unfortunately, the Plan has not been agreed at Board level, which reflected the difficulties in Leaders agreeing collectively on some of the detail. Members were urged to watch the recording of the live stream to get further information if they required.
Turning to the issue of devolution, the Executive Leader explained that whilst it was known to be coming, all details currently remained speculative. However, having looked at the M10 group of which Cambridgeshire remained part, the Leader remained optimistic that the area might get some good things out of devolution that would be beneficial for delivery. Work needed to continue on meeting the improvements set out within the Improvement Plan and the CPCA remained committed to doing this. Inevitably it would involve politicians working together.
Councillor Conboy went on to report that following a recent allocation of responsibilities to all Leaders on the CPCA, she had been given responsibility for devolution, a role which she was excited to take forward, involving councillors in Huntingdonshire.
Finally, Councillor Conboy drew attention to the current committee and panel structure within the Combined Authority and those Members representing Huntingdonshire. She urged members to address concerns to Combined Authority Committee Members as appropriate.
Arising from the presentation, Councillor R J West expressed his disappointment that the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan had not been approved. In addressing the Council, he urged all leaders on the CPCA Board not to think purely about their individual districts when decision making but to look at the longer-term plan and the county as a whole. In response to which the Executive Leader explained that she was always mindful that leaders would have their own challenges and accountabilities to their respective Councils, but she hoped it would be possible to find a way forward.
With the assistance of a PowerPoint presentation (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) Councillor M A Hassall provided an update on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
In so doing, the Council were informed that Councillor Hassall and Councillor Neish had volunteered to be rapporteurs for Environment and Transport respectively. The Council were also advised of concerns raised regarding the timetabling of overview and scrutiny meetings, which were only 2 days prior to Board meetings. There was concern that this did not enable the committee to be as effective in informing the Board of comments and issues.
In terms of the Improvement Framework, Councillor Hassall’s slides provided an update on some of the initiative’s which were now in place, and which could be utilised by other District Councils, for example the risk framework.
The Council were also informed that the Overview and Scrutiny had received an update on E-Scooter safety at a recent meeting and Members were advised that that most casualties involving e-scooters were in fact e-scooter users, which had been a surprising statistic.
Finally, Councillor Corney reported that he had been unable to attend the last meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee and therefore did not have an update to present. Members were advised that the Sub-Committee dealing with the Code of Conduct hearing would be meeting next week.