CPCA LIVESTREAM
E e e e e e e e e e e e good morning um board members and members of the public ladies and gentlemen um it’s turned 10:00 it’s Wednesday the 20th of March and you are here for the combined Authority board meeting so I’d like to welcome you all
Public and press would join us today sorry I haven’t checked are we online my apologies sorry so we are online okay so there are no fire drills scheduled for day for today so if the alarm sounds I will adjourn the meeting and we will leave the building by the
Nearest e exit and assemble in the High Street a reminder to those present that the public session of this meeting will be live streamed and a recording will be placed on the combined authorities website can I ask everyone present to turn their mobile phones to silent or vibrate whilst the meeting is taking
Place as always I welcome and value the views of all board members during our debates I do though reserve the right to exercise my discretion as chair during the course of the meeting to determine the time permitted for speeches and the number of speeches to be made by any
Member or officer in order to manage the meeting efficiently I’m now going to move on but I want to just check something Right okay so dis okay so the first part is announcements um well I you what I’m going to do first is can we do apologies thank you mayor we have apologies today from Daryl Preston with John Peach substituting and councelor neser is running late and will join us when she can
Uh thank you and also does any member wish to declare a disclosable pecuniary interest or nonstatutory disclosable interest in any items being considered today okay nothing there as always Declarations of interest can be made at any point during the meeting um just to also note um
Currently counciler is due to be with us in hopefully about 45 minutes I’ve heard from uh John says he might need to leave a little bit early and if anybody could indicate that if this meeting is rolling out that there likely to need to go please let me know sooner rather than
Later um I’m going to go on to announcements um I’m going to start with some in some ways positive news but also an acknowledgement uh we’re about to go into um obviously another board meeting um but actually in preparation for some of these papers there are at least two
Very senior officers who for them it is their last meeting that is Nick Bell our what I call finance officer and Steve Cox um who kind of was working at the County Council came to us and then loved it so much decided to stay um however um
All good things must come to an end uh both um in all their um separate areas have been very much part of you know the the the voyage and change that has been here within the combined Authority and I want to put it on as a matter of public
Record for myself on a personal level but on behalf of the board my absolute huge thanks for those two members who are going on to pastures new and I wish them all the very best but they go leaving an organization in a much better State than when they both arrived and
They have been very much part of that journey and so I am forever there grateful to them all thank [Applause] you I’m also going to make one other announcement I apologize if I’m coming across as somewhat flat and um you know not my usual self because I’m going to talk about something something relatively quite personal but I think it’s also quite personal for the people of certain Huntington sh
Huntington Huntington Town but I so think for cambrid sh um I got an email um on Monday morning the sort of email you don’t like to get um because it said as it titled Mike goof rip um Mike goof um was a a character he
Was a bit larger than life but he was certainly one of somebody who had born and raised I understand in Huntington who I had come across in some earlier uh incarnations as somebody who really cared about his community along with his wife Hazel and I I want to make it on
Note that I spoke to Hazel last night to ensure that she was happy for me to speak about Mike um he was well known and he he really cared about his community and he campaigned for the hospital but he’s more probably better known for his stance and his campaigning
Alongside many in this local area the Huntington cycle and walking group for his passion for cycling um unfortunately over the weekend only 100 yards or so from this actual place where we’re sitting so it feels very raw from that point of view he uh was in a collision with a van and a
Trailer and did not survive it’s always shocking when people are leave this world and particularly in such tragic man matters I’m very much aware that the community of huntingon is grieving on this and I include myself in that that um all I want to say and I asked again for Hazel’s permission about
That is that he was a huge advocate for the benefits of cycling of active travel of safe spaces on our roads on our Pavements not just in the local area but across Europe I would like to put it on public record that he inspired me to be
Interested in cycling I’m sure he fixed many people’s and I know our CEOs by here and he will be sorely sorely missed but we have a commitment within the combined Authority working with our partners to improve Road Safety to be an Exemplar for the region we are part of
Vision zero and his tragic death will not be forgotten and it will be used time and time again to influence me and hopefully all of you to get to a better place in terms of road safety for our local area thank you thank you for allowing me as chair to speak on Mike’s
Behalf um now going to move on to item sorry item two which is the combined Authority membership update um the report asks us to note various changes that have been made to members and substitutes on committees and the board since our last meeting in January are there any additional updates
Since publication of the the papers thank you mayor um I can confirm there was also a temporary change of substitute from the conservative group at Peterboro city council for the combined authorities overview and scrutiny committee on this past Monday with councilor Andy koh’s attending as neither the appointed member or named
Substitute was available there was also a typo in the report which I’ll apologize for recommendation C should refer to the HR committee on the 14th of March not the 8th of March this will be reflected in the decision summary in the minutes does any one have any questions regarding these
Changes well we have been asked to note the changes which we have now done no vote is required we will move on to the minutes the minutes uh reflect the meeting of the 31st of January 2024 I believe they are an accurate record and we are asked to note the action
Log are there any uh comments or objections to the minutes as produced I see no objections so we will take the minutes as approved and the action log as noted thank you item four petitions um and for the first time in my role as a mayor we have
Received one petition for this meeting this was submitted by lead petitioner Emma Mayo Andrews I apologize if the that’s not correct but and request that the combined Authority not just maintain but enhance little ports bus services which have been subject to cuts by stage coach Emma please would you like to come
Forward and address the board uh I remind you that you have three minutes to outline the aims of your petition thank you for coming today thank you I’m MMA May Andrews the lead petitioner for stop the cuts to little ports bus service petition as you say the petition
Calls upon the cpca to not just maintain but enhance little ports bus service I started this petition because Stage Coach stage coaches cuts and changes to the route to just three services a day which run at new times uh with the new earliest new bus taking 44 minutes
Longer this will make the service unusable for many and not everyone is able to or can afford alternative transport but even if everyone who can’t access the train station were able to start um to start driving within the next month this would massively increase congestion on the A10 which is already
Under pressure from the necessary new hous in the area stage coach’s own app calculates that the bus saves 2.38 358 kg of CO2 per passenger per full Journey compared to driving a car uh as of printing this off last night uh there were this petition was signed by 879
People since the 6th of March uh checking this morning uh it’s 893 uh but beyond the numbers the impact on specific individuals is Extreme especially people who are younger older disabled and people most affected by by the economic crisis I’ve been hearing from many people worried about losing their jobs missing Hospital appointments
Becoming isolated from friends and family one woman with epilepsy and another who just happens to live in stram where there’s no other public transport will no longer be able to get to work the mother of a six-year-old will have to wake him off at 5:00 a.m.
To get to childcare in time for the only bus that will get her to work and a grandmother will no longer be able to look after her grand children after school because the last bus coming back from littleport leaves at quarter to 3 um it’s hard to put a price on the
Impact of that but we can put a price on the impact on me personally uh so I struggle to access little ports train station because I use a mobility scooter and there are no drop curbs near the train station so what I have to do um I
Have to go up to the train barriers down the roads with my back to traffic and then round a blind Corner into people leaving the train station uh luckily for me um access to work have agreed that this is dangerous and have approved funding to the tune of £160 a day for
Tax to work which I’m very grateful for but feels deeply wrong when I could be spending 4 pounds of my money on the bus stage coach say it’s too costly to run the number nine but if you look at the bigger picture effective public transport pays for itself and so the
Petition also calls to prioritize moving the bus services to a franchised system which is run in the Public’s interest to give us passenger more of a say in the design of our services thank you thank you thank you Emma um thank you for very eloquently communicating the strength of feeling and worry in
Your local community in relation to this reduction in service by stage coach please those 893 when you last checked um petitioners please be they can all be reassured that their voice is being heard officers myself my Deputy Anna Smith here is the lead member of Transport I know board members for East
Cambridge and District Council all under understand the necessity for bus travel from littleport to Cambridge via elely for employment and education and since receiving the detail of stage coats change have worked diligently to seek a solution that improves the base service from stage coats current proposals which can be built upon
Rapidly at the moment this involves combined Authority paying to double stage coats commercial service from three to six Journeys a day I would note it would have perhaps been more helpful if Stage Coach had brought to our attention problems sooner as we could have more fully considered
Various options with more time in the bank while setting out the budgets as we did the last time Stage Coach found itself walking away from its services and societal obligations to the community the solution as proposed will maximize the possibility to have a service in place from April 14th when
The changes as imposed by Stage Coach were to come into place the tender which offers which officers advertised for the enhanced service has now closed and officers are working through those responses as residents and members will note the new service Stage Coach have registered which provides three Journeys
In each Direction each day does not have static times to which it is currently in place for example the previous 6:00 and 7:00 Journeys from littleport have been merged into a 635 this as well as ensuring that the combined Authority does not compete with a commercial service in the current
Deregulated Market has made our task more complex and I would argue it was unhelpful despite this officers and myself and Representative members will continue to work diligently and cooperatively to put in place the contract Ed solution with the aim that it serves the stops that the previous
Service did and then rapidly study the data and and look for further solution this will also involve working with the communities in land Beach Milton and water beach I just want to thank you again for drawing attention just to how important bus services are for your community but I believe it represents a
Sense of uh a similar sort of sentiment that is evident throughout the whole of the area that we cover I’m very grateful for your input thank you right okay so item five is public and member questions Council Bailey sorry to interrupt proceedings um I just wondered whether it might be possible when we’ve
Got through the public questions to bring for agenda item 10 because that you know I I will be talking about the number nine bus against that agenda item and it might be that Emma might like to stay and listen to the debate about it I believe Graham Campbell is in
Attendance who is the chair Graham um you’re welcome to the combined Authority I believe you have been here before but you are welcome back again thank you for allowing me here I am chairman of the great oo Valley Trust um just say a few words about uh our
Question um Cambridge here is a wonderful County we all love living here it’s got many great things about it uh but it’s it’s quite shocking to note that we do have the least tree cover the least area of protected landscape of any County in the in England uh some years
Ago uh the N National England uh Natural England sorry uh approached the great o Valley Trust um in 2014 to see if we would uh produce an application for designation of the great us Valley uh as an area of outstanding natural beauty this was done with with
Some passion at the time by not by me but by a a large group of people which got the support of a great many local authorities Parish councils Town councils John Major Jonathan jogi and many others uh and this was presented to Natural England and it received with um some enthusiasm by Natural
England uh since 2014 uh with various things have gone on uh natural England’s budget’s been cut quite considerably to the point where uh not enough time has been uh looked at or designated to consider new areas of outside natural beauty until recently or relatively recently the government’s policy of protecting
30% of the uh land area of the UK for the natural world by 2030 has sort of meant that there’s a new uh enthusiasm for the natural world and also um following the Glover report there has been a new approach to protected Landscapes so um the national park am I
Going on too long uh grae you have two minutes gone over two minutes I I you’ve set the scene well okay so um now it seems um that uh Natural England has put us on their map as a potential natural landscape as opposed to NB which is the new name
Forbs partly to level up this vast area of East angland in the East Midlands that doesn’t have any official protected landscape so we feel the great us Valley uh is is is wonderful landscape very it’s got no mountains no mores but it’s a wonderful wonderful landscape we all
Love which then proceeds up to the US es which again is is a an international uh uh International importance so we’re asking whether uh the board could support this application because we feel the board makes so much difference uh currently to to pushing this through um
We’ve done a lot of reports already but I think uh the extra support we could get from you would be really really very welcome thank you Grim um I will summarize for you for the benefit what goes on to the I website is your question is will the cambrid and peterb
Combined authorities support the application for the great oo Valley in Cambridge and washers to be designated as a new National landscape I will proceed to the response one of the four meral Ambitions is to create a strong sense of the place for our region the combined Authority has a corporate objective to enable
Resilient communities that are adaptable to the environment to sorry adaptable to environmental climate financial and social crisis another maral pledge is to promote protect and grow our unique fans critical to this is recognizing the value of our unique landscape the combined Authority has set a target of
Doubling the amount of area managed for wildlife through the development of the local nature recovery strategy the combined Authority is mapping opportunity areas for nature recovery both habitats and species we of course will feed any work on the great oo Valley in washers into the development of to that local nature recovery
Strategy which will be consulted on later this year National landscape designation is now terminology to replace the area of outstanding natural booy as you say changed in November 23 while retaining the same planning status as areas of outstanding natural beauty your proposal from the trust is welcomed and the
Combined Authority is committed to working with you to shape and further look at joint Ambitions for the great ooze and washers area we can support these proposals I support these proposals in line with our priorities but will need to be supported by the district and County Council and Natural England I’m obviously mindful
That you’ve had sort of support noted before but we need to go back and ensure everything’s in in line we really do look forward to talking to you further about these proposals and as a early suggestion feel that this proposal should immediately be raised with the environmental and sustainable
Communities committee um chaired by councelor Bridget Smith at its next meeting either as part of the local nature recovery strategy or indeed as I would prefer it to be as a separate item it’s an excellent idea it has my support and I want to look forward working with
You going forward do you have a follow-up question no I think that you you’ve summed that up very well it’s we’re very grateful for your support thank you very much thank you um the next question is from Paul hollinghurst a CER resident and Democratic services are to read
Out thank you mayor the bus reform and network delivery update includes a report summary table of services being assessed from the precept suggestion list this list doesn’t include any improvements to the service between cambour and St n where the existing cpca tend service whilst very welcome is infrequent and often doesn’t serve the
East of St n so missing the railway station and major loves farm and winteringham developments from mid-afternoon onwards is there potential for the cambor to s’s link to be added to the assessment list its absence seems peculiar given the growing demand as cbor expands appearing in a local
Authority plan as a key bus Corridor and in the past being linked by the frequent 905 service um thank you for the question Paul the necessity for improved transport connections between cambour and C Cambridge was recognized in the precept funded investment list this Improvement is initially focused on
Service four and working with the commercial operator and options to improve the frequency and reliability of the service work on that is ongoing to ensure residents who need an improved bus of it get it later this year we are also exploring with bus operators how section 106 developer funding for the
West cambour and development could be used to provide a service linking the site with Cambridge and Sen nits with an ambition to open this up to other parts of cambour in addition we continue to encourage Stage Coach to serve cambour with the 905 service but as this
Operates on a commercial basis it is at their discretion and we appreciate it would add in Journey time for St neat’s residents and I have been um in discussions with that before so I appreciate that’s quite contentious but thank you Paul for the question uh question three is from Richard Wood
Who is the Secretary of Cambridge area bus users Democratic services to read thank you mayor with reference to agenda item 10 bus reform and network delivery update Cambridge area bus users welcom the bus stop database and program for improvements noting with some amusement the audit also revealed the complexity
Of bus stops and shelter ownership with a variety of Arrangements through constituent councils we also welcome the ambitious and wellth thought out plans for service improvements together with a much overdue interim enhanced partnership with bus operators and the commitment to transform the customer experience of bus travel our view is that the experience
Starts with finding the bus stop which should have a flag displaying service numbers and towards information a printed timetable or eaper combined rtpi and scheduled timetable information brief information on ticket options to reduce dwell time while passengers ask drivers for information information on where to find
Your stop in all key Hub locations like Cambridge City Center rail station and Aden Brooks bus route spider Maps as widely used in London and other locations in England a shelter and seating wherever appropriate or possible rtpi wherever appropriate or possible will the mayor commit to a rolling program of bus stop improvements
Incorporating these key features provided either directly by the combined Authority Andor constituent councils Andor by bus operators as a requirement under EP Arrangements together with published design parameters for new installations to which any constituent Council must either comply or clearly explain to the cpca transport team the need for
Variance um thank you Richard uh for this question again something dear to the heart of the combined Authority and myself at the transport and infrastructure Committee in November 2023 um officers outlined the approach to a bus stop audit across the whole of the region the aim of the audit was to
Establish how many stops there are where they are and an outline of their condition at present 2,981 stops have been identified in the bus stop database for the region with budget now approved to improve bus stops shelters officers have devised an initial methodology on how to apply the available funding in a
Targeted manner to have maximum benefit to passengers this is to include applying an assessment criteria to form an initial high priority 50 stops or shelters that would benefit from investment linked to safety security and ease of waiting environment develop a list for features that will be improved within budget
Requirements with a clear before and after to demonstrate demonstrate Improvement to Residents seek the feedback from local members and communities to inform that final reproach and then link these improvements to the precept Investments to ensure clearer monitoring and evaluation opportunities for investment in bus services and enable a more integrated targeted package of
Improvements we will of course be bringing an update on this to the Future transport and infrastructure committees and we’ll be very pleased to hear back from Richard and anybody else in the Community who wants to feedback on those proposals thank you I’m now going to move to question
Four uh which again Democratic Services is to read out um just for the note this response for this will also link with question five so I’m just wondering do I do question do you want to read out question four then I give a response or should we just link both do both
Questions okay so just for the clarity first question four is from a Elizabeth MC Williams and then question five is from councelor Lor Dupre and both will be read read out by Democratic Services thank you mayor so this question is from Elizabeth McWilliams I would like to draw the
Board’s attention to my petition that expresses disappointment at the stage coach company’s Progressive cuts to the number n bus service and ask the combined authority to set up a new service that connects Milton Water Beach Village and other other villages to El and which stops in these Villages and not just on the
A10 at the time of writing this petition has attracted over 300 signatures and comments demonstrate the need for such a service from those with limited Mobility who cannot walk to the train station or from it into elely at the other end for students for whom it is their sole route
To college for residents of Milton unable to get to the station the petition should be read as complimentary to the similar one set up by mmao Androids F focused on littleport what is really needed is a better way to run our buses rather than this constant cycle of cuts last minute
Saves and then Cuts again we need the combined authority to fill the gaps in the schedule left by the cuts to the current number nine service in the short term and to look into the longer term to offer a service which stops in The Villages abandoned by stage coach can
The mayor offer assurances that we can not only save but also improve this route question yes if you move on to question five now please yes question five is from Council Alon dpre liberal Democrats in elely and East Cambridge here call on the combined authority to provide funding to retain
The current number nine bus timetable this will remove the current uncertainty for users of the number nine bus from littleport to Cambridge via elen water beach this is a key bus route for residents in littleport to get into elen Cambridge and for residents in Little setford Milton Water beach and stram to
Travel North into elely as well as South into Cambridge for work study Leisure and host of other reasons this should be seen as a first step only the combined authorities should urgently review the changes made to the route over recent years because the route is now only
Along the A10 people in water beach and Milton no longer have ready access to the bus nor do they have a bus between the center of the villages to visit friends and relatives or to access shops vets and other services residents deserve a bus service that they can
Count on and make plans around we urge the combined authority to move forward with implemen in strong Democratic control of bus services so that residents are not faced with regular threats to withdraw or reduce the bus services on which they depend thank you um once again I welcome uh residents and all Representatives
Council D pre included um for highlighting the problem and um I will now give a response so regarding the number n service and the recent Stage Coach service reductions the combined Authority were formally notified of changes to Stage coat’s commercial Network namely Services f25 and9 um within the current deregulated
Environment commercial operators sub submit changes to Services by the traffic commissioner unfortunately all the services outlined below were cited as significantly loss making and unable to continue in their current form as we know stage coats has proposed changes to service 9 operating between Lort ele and Cambridge at present the service operates hourly
In both directions during the morning and evening Peak period and every other hour during the off per off peak period as we know this will be reduced to three Journeys operating in each Direction across the whole day using data provided by stage coach it is estimated that the cost per
Passenger Journey figure would be £11.76 for a potential contracted service this is well below the Benchmark of1 pound that has previously being used due to the service degradation in service that residents will face it is recommended to introduce a contracted service that restores as much of the
Service to its current form subject to a tender process and as I’ve already alluded to that has already started however again I note the movement of the times of the new service for instance the 6:00 a.m. and 7 a service to 636 makes that more difficult
So we will continue to to work to maximize the service within the current deregulated environment as a final comment the combined Authority continues to work hard to bring forward proposals for the reform of the bus service and I’ll put it on again on personal note the team of officers have gone above and
Beyond time and time again having to react to um circumstances out with their control and being willing to step up straight away to serve our community so as we know we are in developing a business case for franchising it bring it to the board for a decision to consult in the long term
But that business case is complex and it is taking longer than we hoped meanwhile we are proposing an enhanced partnership with bus operators I’ll stress that again with operators it’s a partnership to try to maximize the service and coordination within the current market system we will bring this forward this summer as we
Push the parallel work on franchising business case this of course then allows the combined authority to be able to operate and manage the bus services rather than being subject to commercial decisions of bus companies thank you um the final question is from councelor Anna Bailey she’s in attendance so councelor Bailey uh
Um yeah yeah what’s your point of order thank you very much indeed mayor on Friday uh Friday I received an email from the monitoring officer confirming that a question which I submitted in accordance with standing orders would be answered at this point in the agenda this morning the monitoring
Officer advised me that you may have vetoed this question I can’t go into detail about what the question is for reasons that uh I don’t want to bre any potential confidenti ity but it did relate to significant safeguarding issues for ex employees and one of the victims about
Whom I raised that question has just advised me that they think that it quite inappropriate just asking why as chair I’m going to refer to the monitoring officer because the uh I think as you know I sent you an email I was given advice by the monitoring officer and
That’s why you were sent an email some time ago over to the monitoring officer thank you chair um I did send an email um to you Council bording um on uh yesterday I believe I can double check um and I spoke to you this morning you
Said you hadn’t received it um but I sent it to the usual email address that I correspond with you on um in that email I set out the reasons um for the rejection and that was done under the Constitution and I set out the Constitutional basis and the rules for
Rejecting um your question your question if answered would disclose confidential information and legally privileged information exposing the cpca yourself and others to litigation thank you chair okay I think the point of order has been answered I’m going to move on to the question mayor you did say you’d welcome
Contributions from all members a you cut me off while I was speaking before and now you’re not allowing me to ask a supplementary it is entirely to you you’re in charge of the meeting don’t claim that you’re letting everyone have a free and fair say as I said I believe the point of
Order was answered fully by the monitoring officer we’ll move on to the question from councelor Bailey thank you mayor how much did the Cambridge how much did the Cambridge and petersburger combined Authority spend from May 2021 onwards on personal alarms and CCTV home security equipment for employees and their families as a result
Of the safeguarding issues arising from the toxic and bullying culture in the office of the mayor um thank you councilor Bailey um because of the nature of the question I’m asking the monitoring office to offer an initial response thank you chair um because a question question relates to um the
Mayor’s office and in the um interest of fairness and um to remove any appearance of conflict I am answering the question so the only expenditure that the CPC has spent on personal alarms or CCTV home security equipment since May 2021 was as a result of a confidential
Whistle BL report being licked to the press and subsequent police advise rather than any culture within the mayor’s office total expenditure on the personal alarms and CCTV according to the authorities record was 461 thank you chair councelor Bailey you have a opportunity for a follow-up question yes
Thank you uh on the 1st of December the mayor wrote to me stating that he was taking advice regarding what more he could do to alleviate the concerns of a former member of Staff in spouse given the obvious distress articulated by the spouse I presume with the former member
Of staff’s consent on social media uh if he’s able to expand on his written apology he said he would do in a meaningful way he said he would do so can the mayor confirm whether or not he’s provided the meaningful apology and if not why not I will pass over to uh the
Monitoring officer on that point but before I do that saying in regards to following that up I have had several conversations with senior officers here uh to see how we can move this the situation forward to get a an appropriate outcome but I’ll let the monitoring officer finish
Off thank you chair um with regard to any subsequent apology as has been detailed in the decision notice that was published on the 17th of November um last year um the requirements of the audit and governance committee has been met by the mayor and that was stated
That the the requirement was that he should apologize and I have said it um at the subsquare board meeting in November and um attach to the decision notice that the mayor did Apologize um I think I’ll add on to that um at the risk of repeating myself that no um the audit
And governance um not myself not any senior officer can dictate to the mayor how the apology um should be drafted or worded because that would be going beyond what the audit and governance committee required and that would be bordering on breaching his um right of
Expression um so as I’ve said on a few occasions the mayor did apologize and sent his apology through myself thank you I was just going to make one final comment um in almost in response to the initial question but it’s um I would like to make it noted that in TW in June
2021 as reported in local newspapers particularly the elely standard a female member of Staff in the mayor’s office was spat at on her way into work this incident along with other incidents occurring around the mayor’s office in elely at the time and before prompted me to write to senior officers
Of the combined Authority asking for the issue of Staff safety and protection measures to be taken seriously for those who may also recall I reiterated the importance of safety of members and indeed staff following the tragic circumstances of the stubbing of David Amy and uh when I spoke at a previous
Board meeting I would just make the point that I would hope this makes the point how I take these things very seriously That’s the end of the public questions item six is the forward plan so are there any questions or comments or can we take that as approved yeah you’re fine um yeah within the forward plan and I’m sorry I haven’t got the exact reference here my apologies but within the forward plan I
Noted a rather peculiar thing and that was that reference was made to two uh cases where there was going to be and now has been uh interviews taking place for senior positions within the combined Authority and what utterly astonished me that the details of that the details of
Even which posts they were were uh uh excluded from publication uh using uh schedule 12 of the Local Government Act 1972 now these posts had been advertised uh in the in the trade press at the very least uh as being as being uh open for uh for people to apply for
So I cannot understand why we are so secretive that in the forward plan we don’t even say which the posts were which were which were going to be the subject of uh of a selection procedure I wonder if I could have some explanation to that please
Um um who’s going to come in is it I um unfortunately I haven’t uh got a copy of the F plan with me but what I can say is that the um interviews that took place for those posts were actually published um to well the interviews with
The HR committee um were published and the way of public um record um yes I I’m looking at it as saw senior appointment candidate um interviews to interview candidate for senior appointment to make recommendations to the ca board yes um that’s was what was on the Ford plan however subsequent to
That the there was a a HR committee uh meeting that took place last week Wednesday and Thursday and I believe those roles were publicly advertised and noted on the agenda so whilst it’s not saying that on the on the Ford plan the meeting itself details um the the the
Roles um themselves and that those meetings took place last week in yeah so sorry I’m just confirming that yes so on the ca um website these details are on there Rob I think you want to come in as well um at risk of of repeating UA’s
Words I think uh Council Bowden you make a fair point around what the forward plan should have in it if you look at the publications of the agendas for the meetings last week it clearly said the section 73 officer for the Wednesday and it clearly said the monitoring officer
For the Thursday so I think you make a fair observation around the forward plan I don’t think it’s been done for any reason of not transparent it’s just has been missed as description um but the public meetings were very clear what was happening at those meetings and what those posts were
You want to come back councelor Bowden thank you I fully accept that it wasn’t done deliberately to to obscure things it was done because there is a culture of secrecy which causes a default position to be taken and I found the items now we’re talking about items 13
And 14 which I’m sorry I’m going to come in I’m sorry you have jumped to a conclusion of a culture of secrecy I think that is a very unhelpful description of what you’ve had of proper responses from senior officers I’m not going to allow you to cont You thank you um I’m going to move on to item seven which are the chief Executives highlights report of which there are many thank you um Rob do you want to kind of introduce your report and update us on any relevant issues since the agenda was published um thank you mayor um and
Obviously hopefully you’ve all had chance to to read through the report just thought there’d be just a a few things that I would add a little bit to so obviously you know um the spring statement had some really good news for the region this not about the combined
Authority I’m sure Council Bowden and fenland District Council have welcomed the 20 million pounds and now awaiting details about what that could mean for the area but it’s positive news news for the region equally um some of the announcements around rail uh and the rail timetable is positive you would
Expect me to say we we we still await more details around the eely junction and other elements that were linked to the network North uh proposals and that is important in terms of of of the area clearly the case for Cambridge uh was announced within the budget and we
Have several uh leaders around the table who have been involved in many conversations since then um and from our perspective obviously the funding for CET and the funding into C University of hospitals is really positive um we all want to understand more and how we can
All support what we know is you know the ambition for Cambridge and the greater Cambridge and wider region is important and I think for us how we work with government on that is important and and reassurance to members who aren’t so close to it that senior officers are
Meeting with dck quite regularly in fact to try and understand more about that um I think it’s important to to to to mention Reef we we are getting nearer to uh May uh I know that several officers from cpca were locked in a room yesterday going through the finer detail
Of the various things that we plan to do um and then we’ll be able to share with certainly leaders around this table and and officers the various councils in terms of when they may be the times that would be helpful to have you in attendance um we also have talked around
The case for Cambridge and how that may or may not be something that needs to be in that conversation that includes conversation with Peter Freeman and so there may be an opportunity to think how we link that together because I think investors will be interested to understand it as well as people around
This around this table um mentions the um east of England all party parliamentary group and what has gone on in the last few months but I think it was worth adding that on Monday there was the APG for the east of England on leveling up and skills uh our um ad of
Skills CLA Paul presented at the meeting um the mayor and I were in attendance a discussion around how important skills and further skills Devolution is for the area it was very well very well received as well as a conversation around housing which was was again important for the
Area and and the minister Lee Rowley was was in attendance uh for that as well um and then I thought maybe worth just two other things and then open up for questions um the shared ambition Workshop uh took place a few weeks ago in elely um from our perspective um if
You if you’ve read the best value notice it’s it’s clear that how we work on a shared ambition is an important element of what duu and including the independent Improvement board are looking for um obviously leaders have had a session uh in January this was a follow-up to that with 80 attendees
Different stakeholders from across different uh areas and of of the region it was a really positive session some real uh good feeling about the commonality areas that uh everyone is interested in and actually some of the conversation in questions this morning around good connectivity buses and transport is something that was a a
Common theme and and obviously now we’ll be working through how we can get our online engagement platform and work that through into the spring and summer to be able to sort of finalize what a shared ambition can look like and then I think the final thing I was going to mention
Just um for today and then and then welcome questions really was um two elements of Peterborough one is that the university has been shortlisted in a public public partnership in the local government Chronicle awards for the work between the University Pet City Council and the combined Authority which is a
Good uh recognition of what has been an impressive uh project to address a a real Fe cold spot um and equally um we pleased that the outline business case for peterb station quarter has got for its first stage which is really important for that investment in that
Area so I think I will stop there um and I’m sure I can see Hands going up uh there may be some questions which I’ll do my best to answer thank you rob uh I think first hand up was Al from The Business board uh thank you chair um I just wanted to
Provide some feedback because often when we talk about planning um there’s often a conversation about at what point do we join the feedback loop and I thought it’s a really positive to share back in terms of progress and work towards um UK Reef um I’ve been really really um
Impressed by how inclusive that process has been inclusion of business voice had an opportunity to talk with stakeholders forming the the the planning but also from a delivery marketing and other aspects there are a number of us from the business board who will be supporting and speaking at UK Reef as
Well and I think in terms of that Focus we talked about um from the the broader measures of the combined Authority and that collegate working together and bringing stakeholders together um I think there’s been a real shift and and I just wanted to commend and say appreciation from The Business board for
Inclusion in those conversations um I think count was it councilor councilor Bridget counc Smith uh thank you very much indeed um so going back to the shared ambition Workshop thank you very much for organizing that and for everybody who went to considerable trouble doing it it
Was excellent it was a real shame that all of um the councils weren’t represented by the political leaders and you know understand some people are probably sick um but my question is did we send follow-up emails to all those 80 people who participated just asking for feedback and giving them the opportunity
To add in anything else that they might not have had the opportunity to uh to add during a really packed packed session because I think we probably all came out talking to people outside and having thoughts and thinking oh wish i’ wish I’d said that thank you I was urgently looking for the
Gentleman who has come to the table Ed could I introduce Ed to give us a feedback on that that was working okay um I’ll be brief but the short answer is it will be going out this week alongside details of the online platform that’s being launched as well so we’re looking for
People not just to contribute via email but we are launching an online engagement platform that will allow people unable to attend those workshops to feed into future stages of development as well in addition to people that are involved in the workshops we also want to engage with
Parish and town councils and it’s not practical to have everyone in the room the members of our thematic committees wider Business board members and also public and Community groups as well so there’ll be a series of online activities based on the activities from the workshop that we’ll be asking people
To complete that can then help feed into and shape the development of the the outputs for discussion at later stages by all means they’re there thank thank you very much indeed so what what impressed me and what surprised me there was the range of participants so I sat on table
Um with you know one very impressive lady very involved in SK in the skills skills agenda I think in East Cambridge uh another lady in you know voluntary sector to do with children and so on so the bread the participant was um was really interesting and you know bearing
In mind we normally sit talking to other politicians um it was really nice to uh talk to people whose whose priorities and focus was actually quite different from from ours so I’d like us to do more of this because I think it really engages us in a way that you know as
Council leaders I think sometimes we can get a bit we can get a bit removed from it actually and I think it’s really helpful to you know sit there being listeners um to you know what people at the Grassroots strugg with the funding crisis and all the other challenges
Say um thank you for your feedback and and thank you Ed for coming to the table there uh I think it was councelor comboy next Sarah so I’m thinking there is a a similar theme here um I also thought that those sessions were incredibly helpful and I happen to sit on a table
With the lady from D um who was I think really interested in hearing all of those voices um and certainly reflected that she found it a really interesting conversation to be part of um I just wanted to ask Rob um obviously because this is such an important piece for us
And because we’ve not been at Reef before um I know how important it is that all of us are active participants in making sure that when we get to Reef we can talk about every part of the combined Authority eloquently and we can make the case for why you really should
Come and start your business here grow your business here come and live here um and and develop your Your Entertainment opportunities here in terms of why you want to come and visit in in cuch here and Peterboro are you getting sufficient support from all of our um authorities
As partners um and if not might you take us to one side outside of the meeting and tell us if there’s anything else we could bring to the table that would be helpful for officers over to you rob yeah um thank you councelor Convoy so the economic development officers have been working
Very closely with cpca from all from all of the of the councils um I think as we finesse what the Six Theme areas what the focus will be what the investment perspectus looks like we will be able to have more direct conversations around which people should be there which
People might need more of a role which may not um we haven’t quite got there that’s why I referenc the locking in a room conversation that took place yesterday with officers to work that through because you know what I’m really Keen is we we also do something with
Those leaders or or or politicians who are attending together to we we can talk through what it will look like uh you know I was asking morning this morning can I see the Pavilion design please cuz I want to to start to understand what that will look like because that’s the
Shop window um and how we make sure it covers everybody in this room and wider so that everyone can see what the place is about so um absolutely support has been has been positive so far I think as we get into the crunch of the real
Detail we we may I may need to have conversations with different people if we want to make sure we’ve got the right people there or the right messages thank councelor ninger welcome to the meeting good to see you thank you um apologies for lateness um it’s very disappointing when one’s trying to be
Good and use public transport and it doesn’t work anyway um thank you uh I wanted to ask a question about um The eely Junction work um which has been something that I know has been very much supported by this Authority and by um many of our neighboring councils um and
Ac across a much wider area actually um it was really good to hear back in the Autumn that this is something that is going to be supported by central government um but I confess to feeling somewhat frustrated by the lack of information subsequently um I just wondered whether there had been anything
Further since these papers were published um and if not whether there was any way in which we could work with our uh colleagues I think probably particular in Norfolk but also um kind of up into the Midlands to try and put this really clearly on the agenda as um something we
Want urgent news on thank you yeah here counciler I’ll hand over to you is that working yeah so um uh CC ninger absolutely so our team leaing with Rel individuals have been speaking to Department transport at regular points to try and ascertain when we will get more information we haven’t got that
Yet we hoped it would be part of the spring budget confirmations it’s not we continue to do that we will pick up with our neighboring colleagues I think that’s a very important point we have had some conversations with with colleagues in in some of those areas already um but obviously what’s
Important is actually to see not the money just the money actually progress and delivery so we are pushing on that because it’s such an important aspect not just for this region as you say do you want to come back thank you um I just wonder I mean there are there
Are a wide number of um MPS and partners who um are apparently as keen on this as we are I I just wonder whether it’s worth um talking to some of them about trying to get this raised in Parliament as well because it is extremely frustrating um having had kind of um a
Glimmer of good news on this but then absolutely nothing since the Autumn thank you you also following up as well councelor Smith it’s a different point a different point well you have to wait your turn um Anna councelor councelor Bailey sorry thank you um just in relation to
Paragraph 4.2 I think there might be a few raised eyebrows about 4 and a half million pounds being spent in Cambridge City on arts and culture and I’m not suggesting that arts and culture isn’t important by any stretch of the imagination but um Cambridge City has a thriving arts and culture scene already
Um and in the middle of a cost of living crisis and when the meral precept is being increased by 200% it you know I think it just warrants a bit of explanation I’d really I I know these funding pots come from all sorts of different sources and can’t be spent
Necessarily flexibly so it’d be really helpful just to have a written note after the meeting about breakdown of that and where that funding comes from and what it is for would be interesting and I have another that’s just a request really doesn’t require response now um also just in relation to paragraph 6.3
In active travel um I remember uh the mayor announcing back in August 2021 right at the beginning of his um tenure that um we we were going to recruit an active travel Zar I think we’ve recently relabeled it um an active travel Ambassador I I’ve kept asking the question every so
Often in in the interim uh period and um I was told in November uh that there was a new recruitment um and we was advised that timelines were being considered so do do we have an active travel Ambassador and post now and if not when when’s it proposed to happen and I’d
Like to understand whether it’s a paid post and what the cost is please um thank you so just um Rob just wants to make a comment about the Cambridge issue uh Cambridge funding issue and then we’ll come to you Tim Rob so C we will WR to you for me but they
Were two specific areas that are in the budget uh that was approved at end of January um and they are capital uh allocations from the 80 million worth of investment across the whole of the region over the next four years I won’t say exactly what they were cuz I’ll get
It wrong now um but we will I’m looking at Nick in one of his last acts after uh as we will make sure we’ll share with everyone but it was things that the board approved um and over to you Tim I think we’ve previously said that we probably
Would drop this the Zar as as a title as maybe not on message at the moment but uh do you want to give an update with regard to the position uh yeah so um specifically in regards to the active travel Champion uh We’ve we set up the um active travel scrutiny Group which
Has got um members from uh interest group but also from District councils across the board uh they are developing the uh job job description for the champion the reason why there’s been a delay is the fact that following discussion R to travel England they want a consistent job description across all
All all all party so that’s all um May Authority but also other areas that are promoting such things so we are um working back travel England to develop a consistent um uh job description for for our area but we’ve obviously with our own flavoring from from the from the
Scrutiny group as well so that’s why there’s been a a a delay because of the the advice we had from mavel England yeah and and the cost do we know the cost so the the the cost implication um which I can get back to you with
Regard the detail of but um there is um a cost that have been built into our AC program going forward but I can get back to you in more detail okay John uh from the integrated care board John O’Brien uh mayor thank you I just um
Wanted to in relation to 4.4 in Rob’s report just acknowledge and thank CPC officers for the support with the health and care careers Expo we had about nearly 1300 young people coming through so that’s really good and so thank you to all the support we had from
Partners well I’m pleased to hear about that that’s that’s integrated care board and the combined Authority coming together well thank you thanks for the feedback um I’ve got got now I’ve got Muhammad councelor faroo then you thank thank you chair robt you mentioned APG which happened on Monday
At 3 o’cl but something else very important happened at 12:00 which we forgot to mention and and that was the uh presentation at the parliament about the hydrogen technology and Green Technology how we want to looking forward to producing a research center in petar and hopefully be Forefront of
The technology but my question UK Reef observation and a couple of points really it’s been great working together you know so many people contributed so many things but what three points I wanted to highlight was before we get there and possibly if it gets distributed to the members is the
Streamline products so what people need to see what exactly they’re getting when the investors come in uh second part no area misses out and we also need to capitalize on the spe speciality of each area so those are the key things for all of us then which is inclusive thank
You thank you for the feedback that’s I’ve got um councelor Anna Smith and then I can come back to you Bridget and if anybody else wants to indicate I think we’ve gone more or less around the table but Anna do you want to come in now yeah thank you sorry on yeah so
First of all as ever there’s so much work highlighted in this and I know that it’s only a small fraction of the work that is taking place across the combined Authority and we have some of our officer team here today and they really can’t get enough thanks for all the work
That they do because it is really very very significant so well done to everyone for that um to Echo what others have said around UK reef and about the shared Vision Workshop I think it was a really really positive experience I’m going to say what I always say because I
Think it’s always relevant which is we have to create a sense in which we are the combined Authority the combined Authority is not them it is us and it will work best when we work together in Partnership to make sure that our whole region is served effectively so I was
Really encouraged by the excellent partnership working we could see happening on that Vision workshop and I know that others have already gone into our Diaries and I’m really looking forward to those next stages um in terms of um funding across the whole combined Authority I did just want to briefly
Point out that the um spend on Leisure and culture in Cambridge is actually not just for Cambridge because the junction which is part of that cultural offer has a huge reach right across a large part of our region to tens of miles away in terms of
It’s and a lot of have been done on that I’m sure those stats can be produced um but it’s really not about a few people up the road this is about providing an enhanced asset and employment in the arts for a large number of people in our region so that’s
As an aside what I was actually going to say is it’s very good to see um so much representation from the combined Authority at the House of Commons and at the House of Lords um echoing what councelor Farooq was just saying around the excellent meetings on Monday and
It’s just one example of where we see our local Civic leaders and we see um the mayor as well making the case for Cambridge at a central government level and that’s sorry Cambridge sh what am I saying it’s case I do apologize I do apologize that’s because
The case for Cambridge is on my mind with cambrid 2040 at the moment so that was not a Freudian s but making the case for cambri sh and Peter B and I’ve probably gone as red as my pink jacket now so yes I know but I’m also Deputy Mayor
And that’s really important so please um bear that in mind what I was going to say was I’m also aware that the um acting assistant director um for transport was at a session in the House of Lords in relation to the accessible transport Charter recently as another
Aspect of um making the case for cambri here and Peterborough now I think having looked at this Charter that’s something we should be thinking about in more detail now I’m not suggesting that we make any kind of decision today but I think it is something that the team it will be
Useful for our transport team to be considering relationship to both cost and program implications of that the accessible transport Charter is an excellent thing for our region and I think we should be looking at it in more detail if we can yeah and I’m sure any incoming um
And active travel Champion would also be um advocating for that point of view as well Anna um I’m going to go back to you Bridget because you said you did want more thing but obviously we’ve got a long meeting so but it’s I’m sure it’s important over to you thank you yes I
I’ll talk do it now rather than the budget um in relation to 5.2 about zero The Net Zero Village program just a point of information um this was discussed at the um uh the the environment and communities committee but not all U member councils were represented and the Business board
Wasn’t there either actually which was a shame um to so point of information and relation to the 1 million pound program which is meant to be a competitive Grant pot uh the committee discussed at length and you know mayor because you were there um that you know they want to look
At alternative ways of getting that money out as quickly as possible so rather than that remaining the responsibility of the combined authority to manage it um they’ve asked officers to look at either uh commissioning one of one of our member councils as the accountable body or passporting money
Down to the the councils who have the capacity to get the money out so there was a real sense of urgency to get this money out get it out of the bank account get it in the communities where it will actually start to deliver and help us on our journey to uh zeroc Carbon I do recall the conversation councelor Smith do you want to make any comment about that Rob or it’s just for noting and and obviously important obviously for all our thematic committees that representation from all areas is there so you can miss out on these little gems of information and
They get out sooner rather than later um I think that’s the most questions you ever had Rob they’re getting better your reports okay so um thank you on your highlights report we were asked to note this report which we have done as no vote is required we’ll now move on
Uh to the budget update report um I’m forget I’m going to rob Emory is the Assistant Director of Finance and we introduce to the report oh it works thank you chair um firstly I just wanted to thank an eagle-eyed colleague who uh picked this up after publication but there’s a
Figure in the table on page 104 of your agenda pack um which was missed when the Figures were updated following the audit and governance committee reviewing uh the treasury management strategy in January uh the table sets out the balances and Returns on the combined authorities Treasury management portfolio and the average return figure
At the bottom of the table should be 5.42% rather than 5.03 the rest of the figures in that table are correct um in addition to the regular update to the board on the financial performance of the organization uh this month the report also includes the requests for provisional carry forwards
On the capital program to ensure continued delivery into April and Beyond request for approval of £400,000 to fund the continuation of the Improvement plan and a request to approve the 2425 Financial strategies on the revenue budget side of things we’re forecasting a 10 million pound favorable variance against budget
By the end of the year of this 10 million 8 million pounds of that are budgets from ring fence grants such as the ad education budget and skills boot camps where the combined Authority can’t use that funding for any other priorities it must be used on those
Areas 1 million of it relates to passenger transport services and the unders spends on that are considered when we set the transport levy on PB city council and Cambridge County Council in future years and 450,000 is due to the delay in the public consultation on the business case for
Bus franchising which will now occur in next financial year and so we’ll be requested as a carry forward on the capital program there’s been a reduction in the budget in line with the previous discussions at this board where we were going to look at our forecast and make sure we could bring a
More accurate one to this board uh they’ve reduced the forecast spend by15 million to a total forecast slippage of 41 million pound of that 41 million more than half of it is made up by the hug 2 Capital retrofit program with a further four transport projects making up 30% so
That’s the vast majority of that 41 million in those five areas more detail on those and all other changes in variants above 00,000 are included in the regular appendix 2 on the income side of things the largest changing changes are all related to timing there’s 199 million pounds of
Money that we were expecting to get in this year which we’re now expecting next year and 20 million pounds which we’re expecting in April which were now already received in March so while there’s some big numbers in that section they’re not concerned they’re purely timing um the one two remaining are way
For boot camps where the income’s reducing due to reduced delivery um and the change on Treasury management income which is now forecasting an additional 1.3 million pounds of income payable for 20 324 so by the end of this year alongside this usual update as it’s the last board meeting of the Year we’re
Also looking to get approval to carry forward unspent capital budgets for next year because officers are only empowered to spend approved budgets and so inorder order to continue delivery from the 1 of April we need to assure that those budgets are continuing um these are forecasts at
This point in your outturn report in June we will be bringing the final position on those and any changes in that slippage will be reported there and asked for final approval happy to pause there on the update or carry on and complete the two extra bits in the report as chair would
Prefer okay um so the first as the board are aware dck issued us with a second best value notice in January the notice recognized the good work done by the combined authority to address the issues raised in the first notice but Express The View that more work was needed it
Highlighted four specific themes which the combined Authority should continue to focus on I won’t go over them now as your next agenda item is all about it um but in order to ensure the combined Authority can continue with the momentum we’ve built up through the first two
Phases of the Improvement plan the board is asked to approve the allocation of a further £400,000 funded from that 1.3 million additional treasury management income to support the work on the Improvement plan in 2425 as a brief breakdown about half of that 400,000 is to meet the cost of
Project management support on the Improvement plan and the balance the other half is actually for work embedding the single Assurance framework which while it falls under the Improvement plan is work that would likely have been required regardless it just wouldn’t have been under an improvement plan umbrella finally and responsible for
About 90 of the 100 pages of this report so please accept my apologies the combined authorities required before the start of each Financial year to approve its Financial strategies for the forthcoming year these are made up of the capital strategy which is high level overview of everything the combined
Authority is planning to do with its capital funding whether that’s grants loans Equity Etc and an overview of the governance processes in place to make sure that is well spent uh the treasury management Investments strategy which is a similar document but talking about how we manage
Our cash flow to make sure we can pay people when we need to and that the money is not at risk before it’s required and the non-t treasury investment strategy which is all the other things so all the Investments um which are done for service purposes so the majority of the capital program
Where we’re investing for returns in transport skills and the economy all of these draft strategies were reviewed at audit and governance in January um and following that they’ve been updated on figures to reflect the January medium-term financial plan and a couple of minor presentational enhancements thanks to our treasury
Management advisers Arling close casting their experienced eye over it as well that’s everything on the report myself and other officers are here to take any questions um yeah thank you Rob if you can hold it there um so just before we start uh discussions on this item a bit
Of housekeeping it has been brought to my attention that the wording recommendation C needs to be amended for accuracy recommendation C should read approve the allocation of 400,000 from additional treasury management income not interest to fund the continuation of the Improvement plan in 2024 to2 as set
Out in section six I move that we amend that recommendation accordingly and I need a second for that change of one word I’ll take that from my Deputy councelor singer so can we just take a vote on that change of one word those in favor that’s in favor right those against those
Abstaining two abstentions it passes a majority um so I will now open the report Court to debate by the board uh councelor Bridget Smith uh thank you very much uh so in in relation to V variances so you know I understand that um you know there’s various bits
Various underspend that are being move moved over um but I wanted particularly just to ask about the the skills boot camps wave three and four and this is probably really you might want to refer it to council net and J so we got 850,000 under spend uh due to uh lower
Than anticipated uptake now I appreciate that’s this is a national problem um so my question is is there any risk of this money being clawed back do we have if not do we have any freedoms to change the way that we’re using it to hopefully make it more attractive to people and if
Not what are we within this combined Authority going to do to make sure that this time next year we’re you know we’re having the same conversation about low uptake and and consequent underspend I’m going to go to Rob first for the financial answer then I’ll come
To our lead member for skills to give a a more rounded answer maybe thank you chair in terms of the funding um the department for Education gives out the skills boot camp funding in AAR based on actual delivery so there’s an 800k under income reported variants as well which
Matches off against that so it’s actually money we never get rather than money we’re holding on to that we could use elsewhere clarification on that please so so that means that we could have had an extra £850,000 we’ve missed the opportunity this financial year to have
It and spend it so it’s gone it’s gone forever and we’re back kind of you know with a zero budget to whatever the allocation is this year uh they’re in wave so we’ve got wave four secured so there will be new funding for continued delivery but we
Are only able to spend the money where there’s people who want to take the courses which I’m sure Council nessinger can speak in more detail than I Luc Lucy just before you come to you because I think Council Bowden wants to come in with a similar question maybe or
Question uh I did note this when I read it and uh I I’m grateful to councelor Smith councilor appr Smith for asking that question and great getting greater elucidation which I hadn’t managed to to receive from the report but it struck me and it has struck me for some I’m not
Going to have an inquest on what has happened in the past what’s happened has happened uh but it’s useful to learn lessons for the future and also potentially to think how we can get better value for money and on the skills agenda generally uh I’d love uh I’m not
Criticizing councelor nsing for anything I’m saying either this is meant to be a helpful suggestion but on the skills agenda generally we in this combined Authority area are in a quite astonishing position of all the combined authorities in the country one might say of all the local authorities in the country
Nowhere is there greater disparity in skills between the most skilled individuals in the most in generally the most skilled areas and the most unskilled and the disparity that we have within the combined Authority area is very great there seems to be a first of
All there doesn’t seem to me to be a a significant amount of bias towards the skills money which may be Avail has been available in the past and may be available in the future towards those areas have the lowest skills and it seems to me there should be a very
Significant bias in terms of what we do to focus on those areas one of the problems with that I’m sorry to say is that experience is that those areas with the lowest skills are some of the most difficult ones in order to get people involved in the skills process and that
Means that in terms of cost per person it costs more to to uh invest our money in the areas where we need to up upgrade the skills than it does in the areas that we don’t so I think we need to look at our metrics very carefully indeed here and
We need to overcome those cost per person metrics so that we achieve the objectives which will be most useful so far as the combined Authority is concerned which is to concentrate our money to improve those areas which are lamentably poor in the case of Finland I
Have to say and I know that there are similar situations in past parts of Peter that we we uh focus on trying to ensure that those lamentably poor areas are brought up by whatever means we we can thank you mayor um I’m conscious I don’t think CLA
Is here today who’s obviously May yeah I know I I I’ll let lead man but I’m sure we can get a more formalized officer response in regard to some of the questions you asked about where money gets spent because I’ve seen that and I think you’d be well I’ll let the
Officers come back with you but more importantly Lucy do you want to come in as lead member so um they are two quite separate topics the the the Finland issue and the boot camps issue um so I’ll start with the boot camps issue um and uh the frustration being um expressed by uh
Councelor Smith um is one felt I think across the whole country in relation to that particular wave of boot camp money um the the the major problem with that wave of boot camp money um is one that has been raised at this board on a number of occasions and it’s to do with
The time scales with which govern made money available and then expected it to be spent by so there was an expectation that money would be made available and spent within a single year um and it’s extremely difficult to get providers involved in a program which is due to
Start in September they have to get the learn they have to get the programs up they have to get the Learners in and then they have to get them out of the door by effectively the following March and they just don’t have the time to um
To to set all that up and get people out of the door so that was a that was a real problem with the um the first waves of the boot camp money um it is something thinking about learning from uh previous problems um government have recognized that that was a problem with
Their programs and therefore the next the later programs have longer I think they’ve got twoyear programs rather than one year programs which which isn’t ideal but um because two years is still not very long to get invol I mean you have you have to find the people to
Teach the courses um and two years is still not very long to find people to to recruit teachers and then recruit Learners and then deliver the learning it’s still rather a short program but it’s a it’s more manageable than one year which is effectively impossible to do um so that’s that’s what happened
With the first wave and the second wave while still very far from ideal is better um the other thing about the boot camp program is that it has to be delivered for extremely specific courses um and finding the Learners who want to do those courses um isn’t necessarily
Always easy either there’s quite a focus on numeracy and and while I think we would all understand why we want people to be upskilled on numeracy the people who want to be upskilled on numeracy are not necessarily as keen on it as we would be on them doing numeracy courses
So um there is there’s a real need to try and kind of um incentivize people to come on to those courses coming on to council bowden’s point about um the the need to focus our energy on particular areas where there are great disparities in skills um I
Think we are all aware of the desirability of trying to up skill um particular uh groups of our um our population and that those are not necessarily evenly spread across the county um there are particular issues in trying to get um Learners who have very low skills
Through the door to do more learning they don’t they’re not always as Keen to come and do that as we would like them to be um and in some places there are also issues of accessibility so um lack of public transport is one of the things that prevents people from accessing
Courses I know that cambridge’s skills who are um and this is this is to do with the adult learning budget rather than the um uh boot camps budget but the um but Cambridge are skills who are uh particular particularly um focused on trying to get those who are have the
Lowest skills and are furthest away from uh employment and the labor market um involved in learning um are have a real focus a kind of newly energized focus on trying to reach hard to reach people and going out to do teaching and courses as close to them as we possibly can um
Rather than expecting them to come into centers because that’s quite difficult sometimes um but but uh that it is it is difficult to if people are um unable to get to the venues where teaching is being provided um going out to meet them is a good thing to do but it’s not
Always easy and it’s certainly not always cheap uh but there is a focus on that and there’s also a focus within the committee which is is quite new on much more flexible commissioning which will allow us to um concentrate on giving more money to providers who are getting
More Learners rather than just handing it out um kind of saying that there’s a contract for x amount for this person and then if it doesn’t if if for that provider and if that provider doesn’t manage to get the the Learners in not being able to move that quickly to other
Providers if that makes sense so so that’s all work in progress um I’m sure we can send you some notes on that for the skills committee because I think there are some notes being done for the overview and scrutiny committee that I attended on Monday so we’ll pass those
Around thank you I’m I’m grateful for the a good summary which is probably veing away from the necessary the budget I have seen two people have indicated they want to add a little bit could I ask them to be relatively brief otherwise we’ll take a look um Anna I
Try to talk first I think Council Bowden and I Bowden and I share our passion for addressing inequality across our region I think we probably all do um on this board you’d expect me as a former teacher to say something on on that issue so I just wanted to mention a
Couple of things which I do hope are budget related um I was recently um at peterb college for colleges week looking at the amazing work they’re doing there on skills one of the things of course that we are helping to fund is the center for Green Technology which is
Really exciting moving very well we’ve obviously got Ang um angli rusing university peterb as well I did just want to draw attention to three things the skills Cod spot mapping work that’s been done which is really excellent one of the results of that we’ve already seen in terms of the training center at
Chatus but I know that’s only part of the picture um we are we are one of very few combined author ities to lift the level three entitlement cap so you can take a level three qualification if it’s your first one at any age in our Authority that’s very unusual and that
Is really excellent we give bseries to care experienced people we have the multiply bus which is absolutely intended to get around and deal with skills issues councel neser is also absolutely right we must improve public transport or we will not be able to solve this issue properly it must be
Seen in a joined up way that is not to say that more can’t be done of course it can that’s why we haven’t disbanded the skills committee because there is so much more we need to do but I think it’s worth reminding us all in this room
There is plenty of ambition and intent to do that and some really excellent work that has already happened here lots of positives there I Al from The Business board I’ll try and keep it brief after that response that’s fine um I think it was just an interesting segue
Having um not only my role in The Business board but having spent two years chairing the employment and skills board um it’s it’s an interesting dilemma because actually if we wind the clock back a few years ago one of our challenges was looking at how we could actually deliver on the adult education
Budget and that was very much linked into provision and providers and actually having courses that were funded multi-year that would be attractive to Providers and allow for engagement with Learners so in one regard when I look at the budget whilst it’s always frustrating if we get a short window of
Engagement for a particular um project it’s also positive in a way that we’re actually able to deliver on the broader Budget on a more consistent way year on year which is always been mapped with providers against things like the labor market information to try and make sure
That we’re aspiring to get level twos to level 3es and and higher level qualifications so um the the feedback from The Business board is it’s good that we’re spending more of what we’ve got available to us on the broader education part and I think that’s something that could be missed but
Actually is a really important step forward well look I just want to say thank you for everybody there’s some interesting information there but um obviously I Keen to kind of keep further discussions around specifically maybe challenges on the budget report and these four recommendations mammad are you wanted to come in
Or no no no so I’m not you had your hand I was going to make a couple of yeah um sorry I’m going to go back to council Bo and he’s made a great point there that if they don’t come to you you take it to them and opportunities are huge in pboro
And L for for upskilling the training um but what I wanted to talk to you about was under spend on fate access scheme um that’s because we have got that done that’s 4.2 uh we’ got the main core core part of it done but we’re working with
Officers to have some additional work on that so that’s that’s what we’re doing so that’s not quite under spend just yet so we’re working with you guys the other only other question I had was that 400k which is been allocated for the Improvement side what specific things
Are we are we employing extra people or are we getting somebody from outside to make some processes in place or what what are we doing with that um I’m conscious that could we maybe leave that can we take that afterwards because we will be talking it is we’re talking about the whole
Improvement board process and I think all right so but in regard to the is that something that you can come in or Nick is it Nick do you want to provide some further detail on I know we talked about this it’s it’s it’s a fair point because it is actually something
We’re voting on my apologies that’s all right this um so just in relation to to £400,000 um there’ll be I think as Rob mentioned previously um roughly about half of that will go into the project managers and the project support that we need to deliver the Improvement program the
Other 200,000 is to help us to implement the single Assurance framework that would be about developing the various processes that we need all the forms all the training that we need to do for our staff and for Staffing constituent counil as well who’ll be supporting this
Through there so there’s a whole set of individual pieces of expenditure that we need to go into that I’d be more than happy to provide a further written note um to the board if required in relation to those detailed areas but that is the intent in relation the thing I should
Mention as well is it’s not a target for us 400,000 I’m hoping that we will come in less than 400,000 but it gives us the ability to be able to do what we think we need to do over the course of the next few months to get to July the 31st
And to hopefully by that stage have delivered the requirements of the Improvement program but happy take any further questions on that thank you Nick um any more questions oh sorry can Anna thank you certainly heard that loud and clear Nick with your microphone’s been turned up or something um and actually
It was the question that I was going to ask but I I’ve got a subtlety to it so I will uh say what I was going to say um obviously we’re being asked today to uh agree significant additional funds around the ongoing situation of being in best value uh status which for anybody
Normal might um more normal terminology might be you know it is akin to sort of self-imposed special measures really I think is perhaps how more people would understand it um we have racked up a lot of costs today we’ve had 750,000 in July 22 250 ,000 in July 23 and another
400,000 now so we’re up to 1.4 million and of course that’s on top of very considerable costs that we’ve had to spend uh on matters arising from the whistleblowing and code of conduct complaints that that that included large uh payouts of senior and other staff to avoid avoid employment and personal
Injury claims um but I think you know the reality is it’s about really the cost in terms of lost opportunity for Cambridge and Peterburg residents which I think is far greater um in lack of delivery and uh I really hope uh that this additional money um I will abstain
On it because I’ve got really mixed feelings about where we’re at which I will talk about on the on the later item um because this is about the money um but uh you know I really hope that that will help this organization focus on delivery because that is absolutely
Where we need to be focused um and that taxpayers will start to see some actual real tangible benefits from this money that’s being plowed into uh this very sorry situation that we find ourselves I think there was some surprise in the organization about receiving the ongoing
Best value notice I have to say I wasn’t that surprised because I I think we’re right at the beginning of our improvements I am pleased we we’ve got a um you know stable officer base now in uh we’ve got some really good officers uh we’ve got more appointments hopefully
Later today so I think you know that’s a good situation to take us forward but I it’s got to be about delivery now any mo any more comments on this budget report nope okay right so I just got to so there are um four recommendations so
Um we’ve had the debate I’m moving the recommendations as previously amended and do I now need a second I’ll take that from Anna Smith as my Deputy we will move to the vote on the recommendations recommendation a is just a note recommendations b c and d require a vote those in favor
Those those against and those abstaining carried so that’s carried as a majority thank you all of you I’m sorry I’m going to make a proposal just to go for item nine which is the Improvement plan sorry can we go to item 10 just conscious is still sitting here um and
Lucy Lucy’s here so I I’m happy to that it’s obviously I was just trying to kind of get timings right and everything but um all right well I didn’t mean necessarily immediately but I meant next just so you know okay in that case as as
I assume that we might have quite a bit to discuss about in item 10 can I just suggest a five minute Comfort break then we’ll go to item 10 and then we’ll go to the Improvement plan is that okay with everybody okay fine thank you e e e e e e e e
E e e e e e e e e e e okay count councelor Smith believe you wanted to yes draw to my attention so um so I’ve had I’ve had a word with um with with Emma here and uh she’s very happy for us to actually stick with the agenda
As as planned I think we’re risk of kind of putting carts before horses and I think we I personally think we need to have this discussion as planned on the agenda in the order in the order that is as planned please okay um well thank you
I obviously met Emma to get the petition which I did make the point that was very grateful I know you’ve taken your photos and want to be properly involved in the whole event so um thank you for that so we’ll we’ll stick with the agenda as proposed um with number nine being the
Improvement Plan update uh just to check we’re online are we yes thank you so um Angela thank you coming to the table now interim director of transformation program is here to introduce the report thank you and it starts on 142 thank you Mayor I just get to the top of my report thank you um so this report covers a number of areas and it asks the board to note the best value notice that was received in January and you will recall that at the January meeting we just received um the best
Value notice so although we verbally discussed it today the report is asking you to note the contents of that it asks you to note the closedown of the activity in the phase two plan and I’ll come back to how that’s being dealt with but it also asks you to agree the focus
For the phase three plan which is specifically focusing on the elements of the best value notice that was received in January and it also sets out a revised terms of reference for the independent Improvement board which again in January we referenced and you are asked to agree that and I will go
Through that so mayor in paragraph 1.2 sorry 2.1 of the report it sets out um what was contained in the best value notice that was received in January and may the the best value notice received does acknowledge the steps that the combined Authority has taken to address the serious issues identified and it
Also recognized the progress that has been made in delivering the Improvement plan it also acknowledges that cultural change and ensuring it’s having the desired long-term impact is likely to take time and will require sustained effort from both members and indeed sorry of officers and indeed members at the combined
Authority it remains concern that despite efforts made more work is needed to ensure effective partnership working between all levels of the combined Authority and it notes um that the whilst the Improvement board continues to draw Assurance from the work of the officer team this needs to be matched by
Actions of the combined Authority board itself um as set out in the letter so the notice is attached as appendix one and identifies the following key expectations of the combined Authority that it continues to implement and embed the changes agreed by the ca board that it continues to implement and monitor the
Cultural change across the organization both for officers and members that it commits to strong partnership working and as already talked about this morning from the chief executive to develop the Strategic priorities and aspirations for the area um with the hope that this can be achieved through consensus but if not
All stakeholders are ready to engaged then the opportunity should be left open for them to do so when they feel ready to it also asks that we continue with the Improvement board making full use of its support and to continue to engage regularly with the department for leveling up housing and
Communities so that sets the context for the focus of the best value notice we look therefore as we said we were going to do in January at what was in the previous plan the phase two plan and a set out in paragraph 2.2 we went through each of the actions
Through the governance of the Improvement Group which is chaired by Nick Bell and we looked at the activity that had been completed and therefore no further action was required and we also looked at what remained open but where it wasn’t contained in the new best value notice that it should be moved
Across to directorate business plans where it was open and it focused on activity identified in the plan then it should still stay with an improvement plan in phase three and may attached at appendix to is that closedown um plan for that current activity um progress that is to be contained within the directorate
Business plans will use the governance that has been set in place by the corporate management team as part of the regular reporting both being contained in the plan being placed in people’s individual objectives and progress being reported and it has been agreed with internal audit that they will focus on
The embedding of that delivery as U business as usual um in June of this year year so hopefully the board and indeed audit and governance committee can be assured that activity that is no longer the focus for the Improvement plan is indeed being carried through May moving now to the
Improvement plan for the phase three so this is the focus of activity that has been contained in the most recent best value notice there are three specific areas of focus and those are set out in paragraph 2.3 the Strategic priorities and aspirations for the area the cultural change that is still
Required for both officers and members and the need to embed the changes that have already been agreed by yourself um as a board members of CMT will continue to lead those and the the leadership of those is again contained in 2.3 and partnership working because it
Cuts across all of those will be a theme that we ensure um is both covered by but also we evidence what there is so that proposed plan is attached as appendix 3 it’s a live document and we will continue to refine it to ensure IT addresses the concerns that are set out
In the best value received we have been working with the local government association with regards to the next phase of improvement May the the board will know that the chair of the be of the local government Association wrote to yourself um offering support to address the key areas of
Concern um a number of conversations have t taken place and indeed we are meeting um Rachel this afternoon with members of the iib to focus on areas of support that the LGA can give us alongside the iib with regards to the desired member culture that the best value notice has
Identified we continue to engage and work with um du luck um we have met on a couple of occasions since the receipt of the best value notice so we have better Clarity on what it means how we need to go forward but also so what it is we
Need to do in terms of relationships with them we have set out over the next few months schedule meetings with duel colleagues um so that we can ensure that we are able to share with them progress on the idea areas of concern that have been set out but also to receive
Feedback from the minister so that we are clear as we go through the next few months where if at all there are any ongoing areas of concern so when we get to July there will be no surprises so that next meeting is to take place tomorrow um we have sent them agenda
Pack with papers as we have done previously including obviously the note that comes to this um the ca board and other matters um a key for us that they have asked for is that we give attention to Gathering and sharing of evidence of progress and we will continue to do that
And indeed to enable doul colleagues attend um any events that we believe that it would be helpful for them too and has already been shared this morning Duck’s colleagues attended the recent stakeholder event so we will keep identified so they can gather evidence of positive progress um themselves
Alongside what we are sharing with them in terms of the independent Improvement uh board both engagement and future role the last independent Improvement board took place last week and members of the ca board attended um to discuss with Chief Executives the Strategic ambition and progress for that and a note has been
Circulated to the board from the chair with regards to his observations and that of the bo boards we have as we set out in January um reviewed with the iib their revised terms of reference and that has been discussed by them they have agreed informally um what was
Devised it has been through audit and governance and indeed overview and scrutiny so attached as appendix five is the draft revised terms of conditions mayor that again um is here for um the ca board to agree um I will leave it at that but I’m happy to add additional information or answer any
Questions thank you for very comprehensive Angela I know it required to be Fleet of foot on this uh but um lots of information there anybody want to make some comments here about these recommendations councel Bailey Anna thank you um so I understand that most members around the table are likely to
Roll their eyes at me uh and simply want to move on from what’s taking place in this organization um it’s hard to be an isolated voice trying to shine a light on wrongdoing but I’m not going to move on unless and until we’ve been honest and transparent about the last two years
Members of the board are rightly uh in my view being held to account by the independent Improvement board and by government through duu um and through the best value notice mechanism there’s something for me severely wrong uh in my view in an organization where the board members who are jointly responsible for
Running the organization are being held to account for things about which they have no knowledge and where information is being withheld from them I’m I’m very interested to understand if the independent Improvement board members have been privy to what’s taken place in this organization they are of course
Tasked with helping the cpca with improving so one would have thought it might be helpful for them to understand what’s gone wrong for me organizations that have failed particularly public authorities which are paid for by taxpayers need to be open and honest and transparent about those failures uh to
Enable the public to hold them to account and to to judge progress uh and for me it is just simply wrong that the public still doesn’t know what the mayor’s apologized for what the underlying employment issues were uh and what the public Pur has had to pay for
In clearing up the mess the reality is that the will is not within this organization to make that happen and to me that’s indicative of an organization that doesn’t want to be transparent or to be held accountable and doesn’t believe in the public interest it’s the very opposite of transparency and it’s
Wrong to move on when the issues continue to be hidden from the board and the public well that’s not me and where an organization has failed particularly one that’s paid for by the public purse efforts to achieve maximum transparency and accountability should be made and if
The cpca won’t open itself to the public then other people will inevitably fill that void and by the way and just for the record because there’s something wrong in the report uh I never agree to my name to be added to the letter to the
Minister Simon hor at D appendix 4 uh I didn’t I didn’t respond to that request I simply asked a question about Bridget seeking some something to be removed from the letter I never I never agreed uh to sign that letter um and I would particularly like to understand uh when
And where my recommendations that I took a lot of trouble to put into an email to various officers and the audit and governance committee around safeguarding improvements uh when and where they’re going to be considered given that they were simply forgotten uh by the audit and governance committee going to let the monitoring
Officer come in first you then thank you chair um just to say with regard to the comments about um the board not been aware of um what’s gone on in the last two years um I’m aware that um some confidential documents um were shared with the board some of which
I um presented myself in exempt sessions um setting out some of the issues to do with um um officers who um were leaving the employment of the combined Authority um I believe this was early on when I joined the combined Authority we did bring the papers sck in um approval of
The board to authorize um to to authorize um the um settlement um our us those words of um those decisions um those I can recollect very clearly before I joined the cpca I believe um a report a confidential report um was also shared with the board to do with um whistleblowing um going
Forward with regard to um other issues to do with the code of conduct um as I’ve said in previous meetings every allegation um that was leved against the mayor who was the subject matter of that code of conduct complaint It’s contained in the decision notice there is nothing that I have left out
Except for matters concerning ex employees and individuals because of the risk to of litigation breaching confidentiality protecting these individuals I remember saying um at the November meeting that the internet doesn’t forget um there are persons who were employees who would expect some level of care towards them um when
Details about issues or information about them is out in the public and has to do with employment matters sometimes people are not patient to read Behind these stories and you can have employees reading stories that have these people named not understanding what’s happening and could in the future prevent them
From getting employment these are all the con considerations that I have to make um as a monitoring officer however that decision was not even for me to make it that the decision not to publish those details where um the decision was made by audit and governance committee
Who has the um remate of deciding member conduct and officer conduct um I without going into a lot of detail um the remit of the board is set out in the the Constitution and there isn’t a reserve delegation to the board to look into employment matters or code of conduct
Matters that’s delegated to audit and governance who have done that job and ey external Auditors have said they’re happy that the right process has been followed all through so um I just wanted to reiterate that I know I’ve said this and I apologize I’m repeating um myself
But there aren’t any issues to do with the code of conduct Rel to the mayor there no allegations um that have been kept out of the Deion notice that was published on the 17th of June with regard to employee matters I do accept that some issues are not discussed in
Public some have been discussed in exempt sessions as I said myself presenting some of those papers and exempt sessions um but overall our role is to Pro um to protect the combined Authority and yourselves as members um to to prevent any risk of litigation thank you chair
Thank you edu um Rob yeah I don’t think there’s much more I can add to to what the managing office said I think what I was going to say was um the specific question about the independent Improvement board I mean again they haven’t seen uh anything other than what
You have seen around this table because it wouldn’t have been appropriate to have shared that with them um I wanted to repeat what uina just said around the external Auditors who did more forensically look at what had taken place to ensure that they could discharge their duties and they were you
Know that that is in written into the auditing government’s report where they said that they were happy with how the process and what had been done um equally duu make reference to it in their best value notice um I appreciate those differencing difference of opinions and Council B went mind be
Saying we’ve talked about this previously um but I I just want to be really clear on record you know this is about an organization absolutely being transparent protecting the organization though from legal Challenge and it isn’t just there are more people that could come into that range and all the time
Ader as monitoring officer needs to be taking that into case and following Constitution and legal opinion and advice which is what we’ve done all along and trying to be therefore transparent based around that and not trying to not share information which I think is a little unfair other people have my question hasn’t
Been answered about it’s been ignored again uh I’ve put forward a detailed email about safeguarding measures for and it got ignored sever times I think thank you um you’re going to come in so so I’ll let U will come about what happened at AUD and governance committee
Because I can’t comment on that but Council B to give you reassurance with our new assistant director of HR Nikki who you may have met I’ve had a conversation with her about us you know we’re looking at policies in any way about refreshing and understanding whether our safeguarding policies as an
Organization need to be updated they would go through the HR committee if those could be changed so just give you that reassurance we are talking about when we can bring that forward sorry right I think I’ve got five people indicating that they want to but Muhammad you were the first I don’t I
Don’t know if it’s on points that you’ve raised or just other things with regard to the Improvement B over to you Muhammad thank thank you mayor U just few few things you you highlighted there were three Focus areas which were strategic priorities cultural change and embed changes to me they’re very
Open-ended in general in other words these could be lifted tomorrow or could be kept on for another year two years so that’s possibly one of the things I wanted to add value the other one I wanted to say was that if it’s a six Monon notice we are already almost
Onethird into it what have we achieved during that period or how what work we have done already and what we as a board can do to get this this lifted and one of the thought occurred to me in my head was that look if we were to have an
Informal board meeting and Anna made a very good point early on in a in in in a speech just before the break that it’s all about the delivery delivery to our residents and if we were to have that informal board meeting where we can have everything out and one of the key things
I want outcome I want from that is that if imagin if this best value notice wasn’t there what particular funding streams what benefits are we able to deliver to Residents and then that could bring us all together and and bring our Focus back onto the residents rather than being individually entangled with particular
Issues within the organization and and wi the point thank you do you want to come back on that point just added to the list okay thank you um going to move to oh so do you want to come back on that okay absolutely yeah um I just think it
Probably helpful to come back to some of the points so yes um it isn’t lost on any of us how six months is actually four months and is going very very quickly and I think I’ve been really clear to to dck with the meeting that we
Have tomorrow that I want them to be more concise with their feedback to us about what’s missing or what they need to see because I think that’s my learning and you know in terms of the conversations over the last best value notice um I think the independent Improvement board have said several
Times about more informal sessions of the board recognizing how busy you all are and how many other things you have to do obviously we have the leader strategy meeting the workshop around shared ambition was also part of that and we can look to do more but and and
There are emails about to go out about more of the workshop around shared ambition which is a key part of what the best value notice is looking for I think UK reef is another example that uh the independent BR board and duu are looking at in how we work together um and then
The point has through that you make around funding I mean be clear with the best value notice in place we cannot access the Devolution framework and the Devolution framework will unlock a lot of different opportunities for the whole region so that is a focus that we need
To be thinking about and are working on because ideally we want to be you know leveling out with those Trailblazers in other parts of the country which is what if you saw in the last two or three weeks West Yorkshire um the new time one Liverpool New Opportunities based on the framework
That was announced in November and until we have no best value notice we’re unable sadly to to access that opportunity for the area um Anna Anna councilor Bailey did you want to comment about the specific point or do what all right fine moving to counc singer
Lucy thank you um my points do relate directly to the comments made by um councilor Bailey um and I just think it’s important to to make clear that I absolutely do not recognize the picture that she painted at the beginning of her comments about this organization not being um uh transparent uh particularly
In relation to the member the code of conduct um and I just wanted to draw attention to the um comments that are in the letter from the minister on the best value notice um and the the the very clear response in that uh and I’m going
To quote now um the member code of conduct was not conducted quickly but we note now that it has been con and it is an important milestone for the authority um and it’s pretty clear to me from that that they consider that matter closed that was not what the sub subsequent
Best value notice was about um and the the the subsequent paragraphs go on to talk about the department remains concerned that depite despite best efforts more work is needed to ensure effective partnership working between all levels of the combined Authority and its constituent authorities to enable the area to achieve its full attention
So it is pretty clear from those two sentences that they consider the um code of conduct issues are now dealt with and closed and that the the um moves that the combined Authority needs to make in order to uh be able to resolve the best value notice and be
Able to get the maximum value from devolution for our residents is about the behavior of the constituent members of this board and their positive engagement in the combined authorities work um and I have to say I’ve been pretty disappointed this morning by the um way in which some members of the board are
Uh failing to take that on board and not being willing to engage in a positive way um about the the future work of this Authority and I think it’s really important to be clear that um if this continues to be the case over the next six months and the best value notice is
Not lifted in the summer the people who will suffer from that will be the residents of this region and their um ability to access future Government funding to help with Devolution um and I just think it’s really important that we are clear and public about that in terms of transparency as well thank
You than thank you I everybody wants to speak I’ll come to you bit by bit sorry Bridget thank you uh thank you very much um councilor Bailey described herself as an isolated voice when I joined the combined Authority Under the last mayor in 2018 I was an isolated voice and it
Was a really it was really unpleasant I recall after one board meeting having to stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway because the meeting had been so toxic and so unpleasant I wasn’t actually safe to drive home what we have now Bears no resemblance whatsoever to those
Days where I differ from councelor Bailey is that I know when the right time is to move on in the best interest of the people that I that I serve I question and actually I think people who regularly watch our meetings and that will include civil servants civil servants at duu probably question
Whether a best value notice would have been issued if the board had demonstrated that it could do what em said reflect the efforts of officers you know the is she says the effort of officers needs to be matched by the board I’m deeply ashamed that this board
Hasn’t been able to match the efforts of officers how do we expect our officers to maintain the work levels the effort levels if we aren’t doing the same Shame Shame on people for not being able to do that I have to question picking up on councilor netzer’s Point whether all
Members of the board actually want this combined authority to succeed or actually whether they they would rather it failed because as Council leaders our duty is to make sure it is a success because our Su our success as Council leaders is reflected in the success of the combined
Authority and hearing that the failure of this board to match the effort of our officers actually prevents us accessing the Devolution framework is the most sh shameful failure of all so I call on everybody to commit to Improvement and at the very least members of this board
Need to attend the meetings set up by the Improvement board and need to attend the workshop because attendance has been lamentable at best and embarrassing at worst um I’m actually going to go to an unelected representative of the board I’ll if he could maybe just come in and
Just let’s take this down a bit but thank you for your input counselor Smith appreciate it uh thank you um I I feel on a topic like this it’s a sensitive area and and I’m very mindful of having no desire to join those sensitive conversations however I feel like I have
An obligation because this is something that is fundamentally linked to the role of the business board and our broader strategic plan and a great source of frustration uh and this is in no way a commentary of different perceptions and views points shared because that’s what’s healthy um as part of an
Overarching board The Business board has gone through a huge Pro process of transition not because of a need of improvement fundamentally a transition from our status as a left integration but on the back of that a broader transition in terms of governance and the interworkings of business voice
Across all of the Thematic strands within the combined Authority and a very expens extensive review of governance and then alongside that has been an extension of engagement with stakeholders well beyond the the cpca officers and and committees but to external stakeholders and I know because it’s a conversation that’s regularly had that
We believe the business board has come a long way in the last couple of years and its engagement with all stakeholders from from all um strands across the region has significantly improved so you won’t be surprised when I say I absolutely do not believe we’re at the
Start of a journey in terms of delivering our core role of outward engagement but I think what’s probably more important and I have to express because one of the business board’s role is to promote and celebrate this region and attract inward investment growth and the economic fuel to allow us to deliver
All of our thematic objectives and fundamental to that is recognizing that we need to provide as much opportunity to celebrate promote and reassure to be able to access that so from a business perspective it is and there’s no other word from it frustrating and disappointing that we are continuing to
Focus or it feels on topics that do not move us forwards that is not to suggest that challenge is not appropriate and I absolutely think it is healthy that there is challenge around this but for us to unlock our opportunities within the business board remit I am really
Encouraging us to focus on the celebrating what we are doing and how far we have moved forward thank you for that uh input I I’m going to go to council Bowden now Chris thank you mayor uh I look at appendix one the best value notice and
The detail within it and I have to say I wasn’t surprised by the result of the best value notice uh H I wasn’t surprised because there are within it both good points and bad points and I think it’s all too easy to concentrate on the bad points and the
Reason the best value notice came out rather than also to acknowledge some of the good points and on the good side it has to be said the comment made by them of them of deok noting the benefits of a strengthened officer team is fundamentally important not merely to
The ability of this authority to operate but its very existence because 18 months into this Administration we were in a situation where 50% of the cpca officer commit compliment was unfilled including the whole of the officer compliment every single Post in the mayor’s own office we were in a disastrous position
And it was only because we took the extraordinary decision of giving our interim chief executive Gordon we gave him a free hand in just selecting as many officers as possible without reference to the board without direct involvement in the board we took that desperate situ uh decision because we
Had no other way of solving what would become a desperate situation and one of the implications of that for example was on the BP side where we didn’t have the officer resource available to put in a proper bip application and we missed out as opposed to every single other mayal
Combined Authority on tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of pounds two of them got got over a billion and we lost out on that which is probably a direct uh uh uh cause of the fact that we’ve now got such a high mayoral precept but duu have accepted that we’ve
Mass L massively improved from that situation that we found ourselves in uh barely 18 months ago and uh that needs to be noted by us and uh we need to continue to build on that but there were negative things as well and they did say we are still failing to embed cultural
Change and we’re still failing to achieve effective partnership working and I have to say some of the things which have been said today don’t really give me a great deal of confidence that we are embedding that cultural change I’m not going to go into detail about
Why I so much disagree with some of the comments which have been made in this debate by the monitoring officer uh and I’m certainly not going to be provocative in stating some of the specifics but given the number of things which we as members of the board have never been
Told even in confidential session uh and which have emerged later is quite astonishing and even only a few weeks ago a whole new area of of activity of this of this Authority was brought to my attention by third party parties which I’d never known now anything which I’ve been told is under
Confidential rules I’ve kept strictly confidential but I must admit I’m much less inclined to keep confidential things which we were never told in the first place and so that’s why I think that embedding cultural change is important and until I agree with the comments which have been made by Anna
But until and unless the board in general and the mayor in particular if I may say so Nick acknowledge and face up to the consequences of some of the disastrous action associated with the first 18 months Nick of your Administration this Authority is unlikely to be able to embed cultural
Change and to achieve the trust needed to create the effective partnership working which is required by dck in its best value notice and I note the comments which were made by councelor bridet Smith about being deeply ashamed I have to say I’ve reached the stage where I’ve been deeply ashamed to be
Continued to be associated with the combined Authority given some of the things which have happened over the last 18 months and two years I feel guilt by association with what has happened and with what certain victims have had have suffered as a result of the toxic culture which existed and that suffering
Continues to happen to this day as you would have heard had you heard my question earlier today thank you mayor okay I’ve as the lead member for governance Edna you’ve indicated a desire to speak i’ think I’d appreciate your Sage words of wisdom thank you uh very much um chair
Um I I will just be brief I I I think that a lot of what I was going to say has been actually been stated very clearly by councelor net singer um addressing the point about transparency and uh stating that there has been a lack of transparency I just
Do not recognize that I don’t I dissociate from those observations I think they’re just wrong uh this board this organization indeed has subjected itself to deep and Broad scrutiny um from the Independent Improvement board the uh external audit auditor we have an in internal audit with an independent chair uh there has
Been um really the the work that that I’ve been associated with uh by officers on the first stages of the Improvement program have been um hugely impressive and this is a uh an area that I’ve got professional experience in and I have to say you know it is an Exemplar of of of
Really uh positive uh really excellent work so I I I really reject those comments I think they’re just mistaken um in terms of the improvement work going forward uh if I may put a different point um I think there it is worth getting more clarity about the detail because the
Sort of things that we have to do now are are important you know culture change we we know it when we see it it it can in a practical way be quite difficult to quantify or or show how how it is being effective and and I think
That it would be really good to understand in detail the kind of things that um the examples of of what good looks like you know in detail um just so that we can have that more detailed sort of conversation and can be really in a good position to demonstrate uh the good
Work that we’re we’re doing um but yes it is all about uh the the big prizes which I’m sure this this organization is now well placed to um benefit from thank you fine Sarah I know you’ve been waitting I’m going to come to you then to Anna I think on another point Thank
You mayor I joined this board probably at the height of the difficulties that this organization was facing I remember that first meeting I have to say to you I’ve been in difficult meetings professionally over a long period of my career I think it might be one of the most difficult
Unpleasant meetings I have ever found myself in and not a place I ever would wish to revisit we’ve come a long way we’ve come a huge on a huge journey I think we have some fundamental challenges and I say this as the person who gamely said that I would take on responsibility for
Devolution which is a enormous challenge but we are politically diverse we’re operating in a political environment and I made this point in fact to my colleague I met from dck that actually we should not forget that and that is what we see in here around this table
And I know they’re probably watching now or will’ll be watching it back on YouTube and we mustn’t forget that it’s an important part of why we’re here how we came to be here in the first place we’re elected by the electorate we’ve then it’s been agreed within our own
Organizations that we will then lead those organizations as part of democracy we speak freely as part of democracy we do not have to agree with each other as part of democracy I think that’s really important because sometimes when I read the detail of the letters from D I think
The expectation is we should all sit around this table we should agree on every issue um there should be nothing that divides us and actually I think most of the time there isn’t much that divides us but occasionally we do end up wearing our political hats and so we
Should but I’m also accountable in this chamber physically in this room in about a week and a half’s time to my 52 counselors of all political parties and those in fact who are not politically Affiliated as to what am I achieving on their behalf and that’s the bit that
Keeps me focused it isn’t when we disagree in this chamber although I find incredibly frustrating on a personal level and deeply distressing because officers are looking to us as elected leaders to show them that sort of shared ambition and the fact that we can work together for the greater good but I’m
Accountable back down at Grassroots for what have I actually delivered from my residents I think we gain more by working together even though there are things which are difficult I think we are right to be able to disagree with each other but I would also request that
We find a way of moving forward collectively if there is new information please don’t share it in this environment but please let us deal with that appropriately but please let us find a way to move forward when we’ve all sat in the room together with our officers as a collected group of board
Members I’ve heard people being really quite passionate about their place but also quite excited about everybody else’s area that they are responsible fori geographically and I want to be able to go to wreath knowing that actually when somebody says to me why should I come and being in Cambridge here and peterb
Bar I want to be as passionate about everybody’s politically elected area as I am about my own because I actually think it’s about the greater good that unites us all but I do want equally I would like Delux civil servants to understand having been a senior civil servant that actually the political
Realm is different from the from the Civil Service realm and they do recognize that I’m sure and I’m sure they are listening intently I may even be in the room listening but it’s really important that we find the things that we can unite behind while recognizing
That there will be issues on which we differ so I’m desperately hoping that wreath being something which is coming up and will be appearing with us short in short order in the same sort of time scale as our Improvement notice is expecting us to improve I’m hoping it’s
A practical opportunity because I want to stand up and get excited about the stuff that’s happening in Chris’s area Anna’s area Anna’s area Muhammad’s area Lucy’s area Bridget’s area my area the stuff we’re doing on business the stuff we’re doing on health and and and um justice system I want to be as
Passionate and excited about that as I am about my own particular issues that I’m concerned about so I’m hoping we can find some things that are easier to unite behind while recognizing there is difference but please let us move forward together because actually our residents need it and our officers need
It and on a personal level I need it because otherwise I go home from these meetings feeling quite depressed that we’re not achieving together cuz actually that’s why I give up my time to be around this table and I think it’s probably the bit that unites us all um
Thank you Sarah Anna Anna Bailey thank you I thank councelor Convoy for her um comments and I agree with absolutely every single word you’ve just said I I genuinely do and I think when there are differing voices around the table you know it is incumbent on us to get
Together and work through that not just dismiss what people are saying and the reasons that they’re saying it uh and roll their eyes at people and I think it’s incredibly unhelpful comments from councelor Smith to pick on uh instances where people haven’t been able to attend particular meetings uh I can remember
Many occasions when councelor Smith has not been able to attend board meetings she’s often put a uh a substitute in I think it’s incredibly unhelpful people have all sorts of reasons sometimes very personal reasons as to why they can’t attend meetings every everybody around this table is busy uh and has a huge
Workload of their own and I think it’s an incredibly unhelpful personal thing to start pointing at people and saying you haven’t turned up here you haven’t turned up there completely wrong I’ve got one point one point of detail that I would just like to raise um and it’s
About paragraph 2.3 uh and it’s a very practical thing um which it sets out there um the lead officers for various elements of the the program the Improvement program program um and the second bullet point is about cultural change across the organization for both offices and members um and sets out the
Um the suggestion that the exec director of place and connectivity will take the role the lead role on that um and this is absolutely not saying anything personal about the person in in that office because uh I’ve met with Judith and we’ve had a really a really
Excellent um meeting yesterday and I I have to say we got through a huge number of topics in very short order um so she she’s an incredibly capable individual but I am very worried about the re enormous remit uh that the office office that position already holds you know
Includes um the director of place and connectivity includes transport infrastructure climate change Net Zero the remnants of the affordable housing program and they are all areas where we need to see massive delivery and we want to focus on delivery and I absolutely support what other people have said
About that I am desperate to get some stuff delivered and I will be positive around delivery I promise you I’m not going to let go of some of the issues that we need to face up to but but we do need to focus on delivery so I am
Concerned that you know brand new officer in post has an the most enormous remit in the organization and needs to be able to massively focus on delivery and and those areas that are in her realm so I would just I’m not saying that this has to be done but I would
Just ask for some reconsideration of that and whether it is the best thing to do and whether that is really going to allow uh proper cultural change to be embedded across the organization and to get the the attention that it deserves and needs um I know Anna is going to come in
A moment but maybe can I just ask the chief executive respond on that in terms of description of the Staffing yeah um thank you councelor Bailey um I would say it’s been quite a live conversation actually across the corporate management team in terms of capacity and delivery and what people’s roles and
Responsibilities are I think it’s really important to talk about my culture actually here because though there’s a named officer I’m very very clear that it’s a one team way of doing things and it may be Judith’s names or case’s names or Nicks but we’re a team and all and
The success as a team is what we’ll make you know and and I talk about that from an officer point of view but it’s similar thing as some of the comments in the best Valley notice around members it’s about work together so we will not
I will not let Judith um get into a position where she can’t she spread too thinly um and we will work that through and if that means I need to change that we I will do may can I just say something else because I know there’s a
Couple of things that so look I I’m not going to get into some of the conversations that have gone on in the chamber uh I think differences of opinion and challenge are are fine as your Chief exec I want to be really clear and I want to be clear to you as a
Board but I want to clear got staff in here as suspect staff watching I came here 10 months ago to help the region and the place because I live here and I care and we have made massive inroads and and I’m really pleased that the councilor bodden you made reference to
What was said in the DLo have we got everything right yet no have we got more to do yes are we really determined and are we going to make sure we do it yes while I’m here and I’m focused on it as well as all the other things we’ve
Talked about today it’s a really fine line and I appreciate people have got things that have been shared with them views and they’re allowed those views but one of the things i’ just want to make clear that the officers and statut officers are doing things to protect the
Combined Authority through what has been quite a challenging period and people may not agree with what has been said but their roles and their statutory roles are really important and they’re a really important part of local government and if you look at where authorities have had problems it’s when
Statutary officers have not been listened to yes they should be challenged we should all be challenged but that is where things have gone a little bit a right so you know I think it’s okay that that people have difference of opinions we’ll always have difference of opinions but I just want
To reiterate the officers of the combined Authority are doing everything they can not just on this particular issue to make sure we’re in a better place and are providing the right professional advice to all of you about why and what is happening thank you rob um Anna Anna
Smith thank you it’s been quite a long debate um first of all Angela thank you to you and your team again for all the work that you’re doing um this report is really very impressive there’s a lot of excellent work that is happening that continues to happen and I want to thank
You for all the leadership you’ve put into helping that happen over many months and everyone who’s working with you so I have a question um there’s a few things I want to say but first of all I do have a direct question which is you know I’m I’m very
Aware that ultimately decision for Best Value notices are ministerial decisions I believe so I think it would be just interesting to know what discussions we’re having directly with the ministerial team as well as with the civil servants because I think that could be quite helpful to know um there
Are a couple of broader things I I wanted to say because I do have some concerns about how we must be coming across during this meeting I think the first thing to say is that in my time here at the combined Authority I have never once had a sense
That anybody is doubting the need for improvement not one person I spoken to has ever denied that need in fact all of us have been absolutely committed to self-reflection to improving and that’s as a group and that’s as individuals and I have seen that time after after time
After time I’ve never seen any resistance to any of the work that we need to do and I have just seen an openness and a willingness to engage I did need to point out I feel it is rewriting history to put this down to a single Administration now the best
Value notice referred to pervasive issues and dates concern back to 2020 and I’m going to quote directly from that best value notice concern Conns about partnership working as outlined in the minister for local government’s letter to the then mayor James Palmer on 13th of July 2020 which remains an area
That requires work it is not appropriate to try to politicize this there are deeper pervasive issues that all of us are trying to address and I think if we’re going to move forward we need to approach that in a non-political way and accept that we have a highly skilled monitoring
Officer an independent monitoring officer officer one of our statutory officers at the combined Authority now I’ve had the great privilege to work with edua closely and my particularly in my time chairing the board and I can absolutely say if she thinks that there is an issue she will
Say and she is not a pushover and she will not allow herself to be controlled in any way edua knows her own mind and she knows the law and she advises us at all time on the legality of what can and cannot be shared and the advice on what
Can and cannot be shared has been given to us as a board and as individuals by UA on several occasions now it is absolutely appropriate as has been said already for us as members to exercise appropriate scrutiny over the work of officers that is part of our job
And absolutely none of us in this room would wish to challenge that however I am concerned that we may be coming to a point where we are failing to listen to The Independent advice of our statutory officer of our monitoring officer and I don’t understand how our failure to listen to
Our Mo in this situation is going to get us out of best value I’m going to say it again and I said it earlier I want to repeat it and it’s something it’s really echoing partly what councelor comboy said yes we come to advocate for our own areas we’re
Representatives for our areas on this board but we’re part of this combined Authority we supported the setup of a combined Authority and I remember the Cambridge City council meeting where we voted on it and I remember an incredibly passionate speech by the then Council leader Lewis Herbert talking about why
It was vital to be part of a combined Authority and it was about working together as a region for the whole good of the region because we are greater than the sum of our parts so we all of us in the business of ad advocating for every single resident
And business and organization across our whole region we need to be able to work together to achieve that and we need to listen to the advice that we’re given by our statutary officers so that we are able to focus our time as Al said earlier on the
Things that will move us forward and will benefit everybody in our region is that it thank you I think most people at the board have now spoken and actually I’m very aware that as chair I haven’t um I’m not going to go over any of the comments um
Both positives and negatives I want to thank you Angelo in regards to your report I think obviously is important that these concerns are AED it’s difficult clearly um and there is a danger that we’re missing out on some of the the positives when we do this U
Reflection but indeed in some cases it’s obviously necessary I just want to clarify a few points before I close and move to the the vote um in regard to um Anna Council Bailey’s concern regarding the letter to the minister which was included in this pack you know well if it’s an apology
That’s required I I give that um I just want to say that in the initial email exchanges it was Council bod and Chris made very clear in his emails as we were trying to work this one out that he was speaking um on behalf of himself I have
Checked the emails on that so um I apologize if by taking that further forward the process of editing and sort of a minor Amendment removing one small sent sentence I think there was a all agree there was a lot of opportunity to kind of make comments and edit um it’s a
Shame that I obviously want to kind of be seen and put on public record you’re withdrawing the support for that letter at the moment it was obviously an excellent example of where generally I felt we were coming together um but it was done is with due process as I felt
And obviously because we generally did feel that um Chris had given his say on this um I’m now going to address you know probably one of the things that stood out at the start of the um debate I I won’t be taking any more questions after
This I’m I will be finishing the a point of personal explanation if I may just to make clear I didn’t withdraw support because I didn’t give my support in the first place so okay fine but obviously you drew your attention to it and as I say I’m just clarifying the process that
We move towards um of all the statements that have been made the one that stood out to me was yours Anor councilor Bailey an isolated voice I know what an isolated voice is in this organization more than anyone and I would say being in that position and being being in this organization was
Probably one of the reasons I had to step back for my own health reasons because I think I put myself through it and what I was being put through you’ve alluded to it that there were sort of systemic problems that have extended possibly from the point of um Inception
And I note obviously and I feel sorry sorry for You Bridget in talking about how you had one time F felt an isolated Voice Sarah you made comments that it’s Poli itics and we can’t take the politics out of it you know we are here to represent our regions the communities we’re meant
To act as one but we do have across the board with the exception of the business board a sort of a political label it’s a f it’s a final request really let’s not make this personal generally we have more in common than what divides us and much more impressive politician said that and
She died for it it’s been a difficult process and obviously some of us are further on in that journey of improvement than others but I will say this because it isn’t personal for me the door will always be open from me as the mayor I think the door is always
Open from all board members that as we move on this journey we need to move together and for those who are struggling with coming along that Journey please come to us work with us it’s not personal the door is always open to you I’m now going to move on to the
Rec I’ll take that as a no what I’ll take that as a moving on to recommendations A and B are actually just to note that C and D require vote so for the recommendation C and D those in favor a second oh sorry I need a second rushing to it okay counselor
Smith thank you I have a second councelor Smith those in favor and those is that unanimous well on this we all agree and that’s the first time today so that’s great thank you maybe that’s the way we move forward thank you um I’m very minded uh and particularly um knowing
How we’ve kind of stuck with this the agenda as the are it is now 5 to one I think bus reform and network delivery update which is my favorite item I’m I’m actually happy to press on a little while longer get this one done and then
Take a break um if anybody else wants a quick break sorry can I just ask when when we do it I’m happy to do that when we do it uh can we sort of break it down a little bit because it’s a number of really meaty topics uh and I think
People need to be given the opportunity speak on each because it’s an enormous topic and there’s quite a lot going on as well abely respect that comment and I I genuinely will try and chair it in a way that everybody feels that you know they get the fair opportunity um this is
Um Judith you were mentioned in the previous item and now it’s your time to shine as the executive director for place and connectivity introducing this report I also note we have Andrew Highfield the assistant director for public transport services in attendance to respond to members questions can I
Also just say for any officers and members of the public if you feel that you just need to get out and go and stretch your legs a little bit please we’re not going to be offended I want to crack on with this but if you need to
Get drinks coffee please do let’s not stand on ceremony whilst we’re trying to get on with democracy thank you than thank you mayor um and so yes in in the spirit of of breaking this down into uh four elements I’ll talk through each of the recommend ation one
After the other and then perhaps we can have a little bit of a discussion about each very much in your hands uh May so the first recommendation uh notes the progress with the franchising proposals and the most recent update of the audit process um including the decision the
Including the intention to bring a decision to consult regarding the outline business this case for franchising proposals to a summer board meeting so at that point we would be proposing to bring the revised business case the full findings of the auditor and then dis obviously seek your approval to move to a public
Consultation stage so that’s the first recommendation the second is then to approve that meanwhile and in parallel officers commence to prepare for an interim enhanced partnership to act as a stepping stone to The Wider further reform that franchising could potentially bring the third recommendation is to note that the department for transport
Is requiring us to produce an updated bus service improvement plan and asking for um Authority for myself to work with um the chair of transport infrastructure committee to make that submission by the 12th of June which is dft’s required timeline and the fourth area is to note
The amount of work that is going on across the wider bus Network because although our Focus um in the first three points is about looking to the Future and new models of bus reform uh there is also a huge amount of work that is going on regarding developing the precept
Routes uh work on the audit of the bus stops infrastructure and we had a question about bus stops earlier the one- pound Fair as well as responding to the challenges of the reduced bus service for instance that we were hearing about earlier on the number nine so there’s a considerable amount of work
That’s ongoing that is covered in the board paper as well um so as was made clear there’s a lot of work and a lot of depth in this paper I’m very happy for Andrew and I to take any question um well let’s start with a um note the progress with the finan franchising
Proposals does anybody want to talk to that Council Bailey Anna thank you thank you for breaking it down into easy Parts um so on franchising um thank you for the update um it’s it’s important that we do this right rather than hastily um and we’re not in a position to move any
Forward yet so I I understand all of that um just in terms of where we’re at I you know I want to say that um you know I’m I remain healthily skeptical about franchising um but absolutely open-minded um about the case for it um I’ve got a concern that you know we have
Had statements from members of the board and the the mayor um that have kind of already stated that you know we’re going to do franchising um before receiving and analyzing the business case and you know this is a mar lonely decision um what we currently know is that the
Business case frankly only Stacks up with an annual revenue investment of between 20 and 25 million uh unless that’s changed since since uh you know we’ve been given that information um you know my view is that cpca certainly doesn’t have 20 to 25 million of its own
Revenue funding um to invest uh and officers have sort of repeatedly said that this shouldn’t be a concern at the moment that you know we’re looking at the case on its merits and we shouldn’t really be worrying yet about where the money’s coming from but say it does
Worry me um there does seem to be a feeling of determination around the organization to go down the franch franchising route and ultimately that might be the right thing to do um but you know if we haven’t got a clear route to where the full required investment is
Coming from it could turn out to be very much the wrong thing you know the meral decision would be taken the packages put out to Tender for seven years um potentially without the necessary level of investment that’s required or seeing even a roote to that investment um and
You know it might turn out to be that enhanced partnership was better um so yeah I want to make it absolutely clear I am absolutely open-minded you know and I think franchising you know it’s got a huge number of plus points because it gives us absolute control over the
Network which is what we desperately want but it also comes with a lot of risk attached to it and I note that stage coach is welcoming the cpca actively pursuing franchising that’s their public line they might be saying that with a bit of a poker face of
Course but but I do think that should give us pause for thought that the reason they like it is because of the current economic conditions around public transport and they know that in a franchise model the cpca will take all the risk and they will still make the
Money so you know we have to we have to be mindful of these things I’m just simply anxious that we properly keep our minds fully open which mine is to to both methods of improving our bus service network and we don’t rush blindly to the franchising option we’ve
Got to be clear that it’s the right thing for for the cpca to do for the long long term um and the rest of our work as a whole because we’ve got a huge other remit of stuff that we cover and we don’t want that to suffer uh just for
This one subject important though it is of of public transport and bus services um you know we have been burnt with our poor bip Plan before um and um you know I note that the the we are being asked to delegate uh in fact perhaps I’m doing the wrong thing and
Straying on to another area of the agenda I was going to talk about the bip plan and the the the request to delegate um the the the updating and finalizing of the bip to hold it should I should I okay I’ll come back to that sorry I saw
Chris you indicated I’ll maybe come back to you in a moment um Judith you indicated her desire to speak I’m not right we’re only talking about the main report at the moment and not the appendices we’re talking about item a the sort of the recommendation a if the
Appendices is relevant to that and it would be relevant then as far as that’s concerned I do endorse the comments which have been made by uh by councelor Bailey I I have to say that I feel that stage coach has taken us for a ride in their relationship with us over the last
18 months two years which I don’t blame the combined Authority I blame Stage Coach let me be quite clear and we’ve got to be very careful that we don’t continue to be taken for a ride by stage coach uh I can well understand why they like the idea that they lose all risk
And manage to continue to make their profits I fully understand that but uh they are I com was it earlier in in in this meeting and I forget by whom that stage coach have a moral duty to uh to local people and to and to the locality
They don’t I’m afraid they have a duty to their shareholders and they put that right at the top they they neither have that well if they should have that duty to to to the locality they certainly don’t exercise that Duty and we have to recognize that fact so when we are
Looking at uh the way in which we go down the enhanced partnership or a franchising route we’ve got to be aware that we are not dealing with organizations who are necessarily benevolent in their attitude and uh being hard-headed about this I think is really important and ensuring that we
Don’t sign an enormous blank check for the benefit of private operators I think is very important Point as well I would reflect Chris that sounds like many of the conversations I’ve had at labor party CLP meeting so maybe you should come along sometime um Al Kingsley
Uh yeah I just wanted to share back from Business board that this is a topic that there’s been a number of members who have supported separate conversations around um and we do support the further development of proposals I think it’s fair to say that some of the conversations would reflect the same
Views articulated by councilor Bailey in terms of these things may be a fantastic opportunity but the devil’s in the detail in terms of the numbers and the sustainability um so we’re supportive at this stage but I do recognize there’s still some more questions to be answered um I’m going to go to Judith
And then I’ll come back for the other questions because Judith otherwise you’ll just be getting a list as long as your arm and another Another Part of your very busy job okay over to you Jud thank thank you um and I really just wanted to provide some reassurance in
Terms of how the business case is constructed in the different elements and confirm that that business case will come back to the board with the wider package um and you’ve obviously alluded to some specific content of the business case and I think it’s perhaps just worthwhile saying a couple of things
About that to bring some some further Clarity so there’s broadly as I’m sure you’re aware there’s there’s five cases within the business case the Strategic which is clearly about what we strategically want the the models to deliver the economic case the financial case and also the commercial and the
Management cases so in other words how it’s how it’s done and for each of those five cases I just wanted to reassure the board that there are both models being considered so it is looking at both the enhanced partnership model and the franchising model and it’s also looking
At them across three different uh levels of investment low medium and high so what we will be able to see and can see as it’s emerging but it’s needing continuous work and testing is that comparison between those models in terms of which is delivering best value for
Money and so on and I should also reassure the board that that my colleague um Nick Bell has also been engaging very closely in that process because as the section 73 he has to be comfortable to make a report to board on the value for money position so I guess
What I’m trying to do is just reassure that one of the reasons um why this process is taking a long time because it is very detailed there are many aspects to it we need to look under all of those scenarios and indeed it we we have to
Assume a 30-year B situation so it’s over a long time of which there is clearly uncertainty and within all of that we need to explore different options so depending on what the investment scenario is you know what are the different ways that we can drisk the
Situation as well so all of those things are part of of the discussion and will continue to be and will be part of the business case that the auditor finally gives us an opinion on and both the audit letter and the business case will be represented to this this
Board thank you Judith I’m going to go to Lucy then you Sarah if that’s okay Lucy CC missinger thank you um for that summary Judith uh it’s picked up a couple of the things I wanted to say um one of which was that um I think um I had the Good
Fortune to speak to one of the cpca officers about the delay um uh in the coffee break just now and and it um it it is fairly clear that the 30-year time scale is an issue and um that the the the the legislation that um we are
Having to work with is not written in a friendly or helpful way um I think we’re we’re fairly um clear that uh when this legislation was written um the government was not actually wanting people to go down the franchising route and it’s written in a way that makes it
Quite difficult to do so um and and I think it’s important to recognize that um I hope that there will be uh some messages going back from members of the board that regardless of what happens what what flavor of new government we get postgenal election it would be
Helpful for them to look at this legislation because it really is not um reflecting the the current uh situation where it is becoming increasingly clear that if we are going to have any kind of rural public transport it is going to need public public subsidy and if it
Needs public subsidy it needs that needs means that uh whatever system there is also needs to be publicly accountable um and have a much greater level of control over I mean if if millions of pounds of public money are going into bus services uh it should not be possible for um
Operators like Stage Coach to just cherp pick the bits that they want to have um and and unfortunately that is the situation that we are currently in um and uh that is why um looking at other options is um is is very necessary I
Think I mean so so we clearly need to go down the partnership route the enhanced partnership route as an interim option because otherwise we won’t be able to meet the time scales for the for the 12th of June um but in the long term uh the enhanced partnership option is
Unlikely to give the level of control over the network that I I think most residents would feel uh ought to be present given the the quantities of public money that are likely to be going into a bus service um so uh that’s the position we’re in I uh the other thing I
Want to say is Judith you are doing a fantastic job on this um I know you’ve come into this role relatively recently um and you and Andrew are both um have both picked this up and moved it Forward very quickly so all thanks to you for that thank you um Sarah Council Convoy
Thank you very much I’d also like to Echo my thanks um but I’m very struck by the comments over here um it has been done before in government but maybe only once or twice um the idea of a joint venture where actually the the risk is shared and the investment is shared and
I think that we should be pushing hard to actually try and embed that as a concept um and maybe that might be something that is putting and marks us out as being different from some of the other authorities that are looking at this a shared risk in terms of the
Partnership between public and private I think actually would benefit our residents most that actually yes we recognize the uniqueness in the commercial world that you’ve got a a shareholder board to be accountable to but in the public World we’ve got the public to be accountable to and at the
End of the day it’s their money too so I would really encourage that in our conversations back with um department for transport anything that we can do within the confines of the the scope up that we have that might allow us to explore some of that I think would be
Incredibly welcome um and I would think that a good operator would be up for that challenge because this is about showing that that wider public commitment and at the end of the day their brand is king um I’m not going to comment on individual providers but if they’ve been watching today they are
Probably not best pleased about how their brand might have been reported back so I think there is something about us working collectively to understand their agenda agenda whilst recognizing the needs of our residents and our agenda so I’m hoping we can find some common ground um working in that that
Opportunity as well but it might not be something that’s been considered amongst our civil service colleagues but it has been done before thank you I am going to sorry I know so I was going to hopefully hop over B into C do you think your
Point would be relevant in that or is it specifically about the franchising issue okay in that case you are a part of the board yes I mean I won’t repeat everybody’s points that have been made already but as um lead member for transport and share of tick it would be
Inappropriate for me not to comment on this I think um firstly to repeat the comments that I made in tick the absolutely superb work by officers two of whom are sitting in front of us today um I’ve said this before on several occasions but I’m absolutely sure
There’s at least two of Andrew and that he’s cloned himself because I don’t know how he manages quite frankly to get it all done I think it’s also worth um pointing out that every decision that was made on buses every decision that’s been made on buses recently in tick has been um
Unanimous from The Tick committees and I think that is absolutely a strong sign of all the work that’s being done and the thoroughness of that work and I’m abs absolutely able to reassure councilor Bailey that the due diligence that is going on is incredibly powerful and significant and
Actually whilst I am deeply disappointed that we can’t move faster nonetheless I want us to ensure that when we are in a position to decide what we do with bus reform we have an absolutely thorough case in front of us and I think that’s Inc that’s really important we do meet very frequently
With officers both in our um cross member sorry with bus operators both in our cross member officer operators meetings and I know officers speak separately as well I think the core is it’s the system and I’m going to be very careful what I say because it is very
Important that we don’t hold ourselves Hostage to Fortune here but it isn’t they operate in a system where the profit motive is the most important thing for them it is the it is the nature of being a private operator that’s what you have to do what we’ve seen in some of the
Absolutely outstanding work that’s happened already um from our offices is that when you are not thinking about the profit motive and the shareholders as a number one thing you were able to do things differently you were able to take different things into account you were able to do things like respond to
Residents who come to us with deep concerns about accessibility in their areas because we are not just thinking about that bottom line in the same way and I think it’s really important that we consider how we take better control of buses for everybody and like um like
Mayor Nick I I’m delighted to hear some of some of the things that that um councilor Bowden is saying there it’s good to know that we all agree on the importance of reforming our Network um I would just as another point also be delighted to brief councel nessing on
The details of the proposed takeback Control Act that has been um put forward by Li Haag um there’s lots of really exciting stuff in there thank you um thank you John appreciate you coming today thanks for the note um I am going to suggest uh we’ve had enough sorry if that’s wrong
Thing so I think the we’ve had an opportunity to uh talk about item a but moving to Item B which is I think approved that officers commence to prepare for the interim enhanced partnership I’m kind of assuming everybody’s happy with that and we can just then move to item C which an know
You’ve already identified as something you’d like to speak to so maybe if I come to you Anna for a question now I it was just really quickly um to say you know we’ve obviously been burnt before with a with a not successful bip plan um and understanding the time scale issues
Uh I’m just a bit concerned about whether it’s right to delegate the updating and finalizing of our bip or whether it should come back to board um or or maybe it could come back to leader strategy might the best thing if we could do that even if it requires a
Special leader strategy meeting uh you know we can’t take a formal decision at leader strategy but we could at least consider it and I think given what happened last time you know where we literally had to review it overnight and it was impossible you know long document
Uh you know I’m just I’d prefer it if the board had seen it really um and I did note something in the report that said that um DFT were had the expectation that that BPS might still be in Draft before yeah so maybe that did deals with the
Problem um on that do you want to come back Judith yes we’ve had a conversation with um DFT colleagues about this on on a number of occasions um and they have the deadline for the 12th of June is one that they require in order that this information feeds into comprehensive
Spending review Tim taes but they do understand that because of local elections in particular it might actually be quite difficult to get political sign off so what we’re proposing um and maybe it just needs an additional word in in the recommendation uh mayor but that we um that the
Delegation is for me to be able to uh work with um tick and others to ensure that we have a version of that which will then come to board for sign off and we’ve already agreed with DFT that we may then submit a revised version with your approval so that was The Proposal
But they are very keen to have our ambitious plan plans to help their funding by the 12th of June yeah yeah I’m really happy with that and is it an ambitious enough plan this time oh so well I’m yeah um that’s certainly our ambition to bring that forward and we’ve you will um we’ve already sort of commenced how we’re going to ensure that we build upon what
We’ve already done and I think that early liaison an engagement with DFT is particularly critical to lay out that yes we are ambitious and yes the submission that they have will achieve many of the Ambitions that this board has just set out thank you Judith uh
Lucy thank you um it’s good to hear that um I think that the point that Anna made about engaging with the board kind of prior to that um is really important um and I know you’ve been doing that consistently and um I would naturally assume you will continue to do so but it
Would it is really important that that carries on um I think one of the points that I just want to make as you go into that process um is that uh one of the things that’s sort of slightly come out of the discussions that we had most recently is that sometimes when you’re
Engaging with different districts about it everybody thinks about what’s going on in their own district and and then you sometimes don’t get the join up across districts that um would be really helpful so in some ways while I absolutely appreciate your engagement with us all individually I do think it’s
Also important for us to meet and discuss collectively at some points because it’s when you start looking at what what the opportunities are kind of across boundaries um that you sometimes end up with things not being done that could make a big difference thank you thank you Lucy um there’s a final
Point which is report recommendation D is anybody going to come to that okay fine uh Council bodden I think May if I’ve got this correct this is the point in which appendix one may be appropriate to talk about case talk away thank you very much indeed and I wonder if you’ll
Give me a little bit of discretion to have two bites of the Cherry here uh I should maybe make a personal uh admission of bias here I would put I could be wrong but I would put money on the fact that I probably have traveled more miles on buses and coaches than all
The other voting members of this board combined and that’s because I’ve had a lifelong interest it’s terrible to say lifelong interest in buses and bus travel and I’ve indulged that repeatedly over many decades I can go back 50 years and remember when I used to uh to uh get
On a bus at 5:00 in the morning to get a ticket which would allow me to travel right across England and Wales on all sorts of different services for different bus companies it was called a £29 7 wonderbus special and I would have to at 5:00 in the morning I’d have to
Explain to the to the driver how to adjust his ticket machine to actually issue the ticket which which I needed so I have a bias in this uh I look at appendix one and I see and I’m this is not I’m not blaming officers in the
Slightest let me tell you on this this is just a matter of fact I’m disappointed to see so much money being expended in order to produce so little result and that’s not the pro that’s not the problem with officers it’s a matter of fact about how expensive it is to
Subsidize bus services and that worries me a great deal in appendix one there are now appendix one is now a public document uh uh so I’m going to be getting comments and questions from various people in Finland and there are two areas on that which I would like to raise the first
One is on the 12th item in appendix one which is to do with roots 33 and 31 and the proposal to divert them to serve the Amazon uh employment area within Peterborough uh and I very much welcome the connection between that employment area and uh Whitty uh my question and
I’m more than happy for this to be answered out of this meeting by by by writing if necessary but my question would be is this expected just to be a Spur to the to those two routs so that the current route would be diverted to go to Amazon and then come back and
Carry On on the existing route in which case how much additional time is it expected that that would take for the for the journey or is it meant to be a different route from Amazon to get into Peterborough uh in which case I’d be very interested in the timing of that as
Well and also given that on that spur you’ve got the Apollo W bu stop which serves carder shopping and Leisure area uh would it be possible for that to be included as well because that could be a useful addition and if that question has to be answered uh uh uh by by writing
Then so be it my second bite of the Cherry is quite different and and slightly more general question I’m and this is to do with the 13th item on appendix one I’m massively welcome I’ve advocated for it for a long time and I massively welcome uh the suggestion that
Christ Church finally receives a bus service Christ Church with uh uh just about a thousand inhabitants in total of all ages is the largest uh community in the in the whole of the combined Authority area with absolutely no bus service and has had no bus service for years so I’m delighted that that
Opportunity is is uh is coming forward and part of this is a is this proposed service from wisbeach CH chatus via among CH Christ Church and manyy railway station and it is it is being shown as being a potential advantage that we link with manyy railway station my concern
Here is and I don’t want the service not to go ahead I’m I’m not suggesting that for one second but my concern and it’s a more General concern about connecting uh different modes of trans connecting bus services with rail services in M we have one Journey every two hours in each
Direction we’re proposing to have one hourly service uh service once an hour how will we ensure or how will we maximize the opportunity that connections can actually be made given that a bus needs to arrive at a station before a train leaves but a bus also needs to be available at the station
After a train arrives so and I I’m asking this question because I know it’s extremely difficult to do I’m I’m not I’m not I’m not naive about that but we have to be careful not to raise expectations that we are creating a connection which in practice doesn’t
Exist so I’d be really interested not just in in terms of man but more generally because man is not the only example that we’ll want to do how the uh officers think that this uh question may be able to be addressed thank you for your Indulgence mayor um I’m we try I’m
Recognizing we need to be things the first point I think is best if Andrew and you you’ve not spoken I know you’ve done all the work I’m not expecting you to give an answer to the first point um in regards to um that root suggestion and if that could be provided as a
Written answer and on the second Point again maybe you could address that in a written answer but I would also give you the reassurance that uh there are many times when I meet people um with regard to trying to improve the connectivity of rail from north to south Peter BR
Through to March onwards to elely um and then down to Cambridge we are on regular contact with rail operator providers to try and increase the frequency as I’m sure you know one of the difficulties is about capacity going through NE Junction which takes us back to something which
Councel and singer uh mentioned earlier in the meeting but there is occasionally some uh opportunities and it is an absolute fundamental wish of I can know my director transport is over there Tim yeah he’s been with me on many of these things to try and just get more trains
Coming through that area all the time and do you want to come back on that on the second question if I may uh mayor uh it is a more general question and I think that officers would be able to give or will be able as far as they
Can to give an answer to us because I think that it’s important because it applies not merely to man but right across the combined Authority area it’s a it’s a real difficulty which we have to overcome I want us to overcome it but I think it’s really useful for this
Discussion to take place here your wish is my command to the officers over to you thank you no thank you councilor Bowden I think that passion and advocacy and the feedback is really useful for that for the process we in around designing these Services hopefully in
Your inbox should be a slide pack which is more Illuminating than this metrics table which has a plan on a page for each of the suggestions and also root map that starts to outline some of the things you’ve picked up on and the process we’ve undertaken over the last
Few weeks since the January approval of the precept investment is to meet with all the constituent Council leaders and go through that and get that feedback as well so it’s really appreciated I’ll provide a written response if that’s okay around some of the specifics that you’ve raised particularly around the 30
And 33 31 and 33 sorry but as hopefully this metrics table shows in the appendix it’s it’s showing some a couple of options for each suggestion sometimes they only have one option but when we release I think the root maps and the plans on a page for all of this detail
That should really provide more evidence base behind what we suggested and how we’ve come to those conclusions if if I could just um sort of pick up on the wider point of of the kind of rural connection issues and how important that is that’s absolutely something that we’re looking at and
Indeed looking at with um the assistant director of Transport in terms of Mobility hubs um and how we can think about where how places connect more effectively and trial that as a bit of a pilot we’re currently looking um at where that might commence but absolutely that integration of buses trains and
Other forms of Transport is absolutely critical and probably more critical in rural areas so yes we’re picking that up as a key priority okay um Lucy you did indicate you wanted to come in thank you um so so it has been really helpful to engage with you on these um
On this appendix um and apologies I have said this in private but I will say it in public also um one of the things that slightly worries me about this list is the frequency of some of these Services um an awful lot of them are intended to
Be hourly um and I’m slightly concerned that by by making them um only hourly uh we actually reduce the number of people who would consider using them because the the the really key thing is to try and get more people onto the buses because the more people we can get using
Them the lower the cost per passenger etc for the subsidy um so I know it will be difficult but I think um spending some time when we’re thinking about our bip and other things um trying to uh increase the frequency as much as possible would be really helpful thank
You okay got that out is there any more comments want to come in there Anna Council Bailey thank you it’s amazing to hear councel net singer talking about only hourly if we get an hourly service in East Cambridge here we are chuffed to bits man it’s brilliant doesn’t happen a lot in our
Neck of the Ws one a week is is is an improvement um just some specifics um I really think so I recognize that we are chomping through a huge amount of work in this bus bus review um so this is not a criticism but we have been waiting for
This work for a very long time at the cpca so it’s it’s great to have it here um and I do think we need to put a timeline down on all of this which kind of for me was missing in the paper just to hold ourselves to um I’m very
Interested to understand noting that the one pound Fair idea um is only really planned and secured until May 25 I’m very interested to understand what the setup costs of that are for the infrastructure and dealing with the cards and stuff and not now happy to receive it afterwards um and also around
The bus shelter improvements um we’re talking about 50 high priority shelters that need to get work uh and I’m I know you haven’t developed the criteria for that uh probably hugely complex and a balancing act like no other but um I want make sure that different areas get
A fair fair dibs because the criteria in one area might be quite different you know in Cambridge City it’s going to be very different to the criteria in East cams um and I know that one of the criticism we’ve had before is around like the idea of safety and lighting um
And actually when you get the hierarchy of bus shelters as you get further out into the rural areas the lighting disappears and actually you could argue that that’s really where it’s needed so I think that needs really carefully thinking about and then I wanted to talk very
Specifically about the number nine so in little little Port cely so I don’t know if that’s to do now or should I do that now yeah open to I’m really sorry that Emma’s gone but anyway um important to say so I I am hugely grateful to cpca officers who have stepped in massive
Massive quick order um to ensure that there’s um some continuation of timetable um provided we get a successful and affordable tender bid um to be put back in place when Stage Coach changes come in on 14th of April it’s not far away now um but it isn’t enough
Uh the route is currently served by three buses and Stage Coach are changing that down to one um and cpca is only proposing to commission one service so it’s going to go from three buses serving the route to two buses and the effect of that is to mean that from the
14th of April residents in littleport elely little fford stram man cainbridge uh will have four less Services per day in each Direction um which to me uh you know speaks to councelor net singer’s Point really it severely undermines the service as a whole um and it’s likely to
Push up the very low cost per passenger Journey that is needed in subsidy uh and uh I used the word half-hearted previously it’s not that sounds critical I mean a sort of half cocked timetable uh is not the way to go we’re either investing in a route and doing it
Properly or not at all for me otherwise it’s just a downward spiral until you get to the end game of the bus not being sustainable anymore um and when this service can be expected to operate at a cost per passenger Journey to the public purse of £176 against our cpca Benchmark
Of12 it’s clearly a route that’s deserving a full investment to be put back to a Full Service timetable far more so than many of the services that continue to be subsidized by the cpca uh one of which is notoriously running at an unsustainable 1225 per passenger Journey so I I don’t want littleport
Which is the most depriving D ward in East Cambridge here and one of the most deprived in the cpca geography and suffers massively from rurality issues missing out when we’ve got this low cost per passenger Journey compared with astronomical sums elsewhere uh the mayor has clearly supported uh and articulated
That he wants to level up rural deprived and Fen communities which is an absolutely honorable and laudable aim um and East Cam’s residents in littleport elely stram and little fford are all having to pay the mayor or Council tax it’s been increased and and yet they’re
Facing you know a cutup to their service uh I wrote to the mayor on 28th of February and and looked forward to receiving a reply something that I want to say about stage coach so uh we had um a sort of semi-public meeting with counselors quite a lot of counselors on
The route turned up with Stage Coach um and you know they are sounding Cooperative to me they were definitely in lling mode um but I I I question how much we’ve had the ability to work with them on getting a Tim table that works for residents rather than their profit
Line um you know they’ve certainly responded posit I’ve had you know individual meetings with them they’ve certainly responded positively to my request to collaborate on an integrated timetable and ticketing so that people feel like they’re using one service the number nine route not a stage coach service and then a cpca commission
Service there are they’ve articulated the fact that there are opportunities to get the cost of the route down overall by commissioning you they own the route in inverted commer well they are the commercial that you know they have first dibs on the route let’s be clear about
It they do you any any other commercial provider can put in can can run a bus service on that route but Stage Coach are running the service and as you know this is the problem the cpca cannot compete with a commercial service otherwise they’ll legally challenge but
They were very open with me and said that they were not in the Realms of making legal challenges that they wanted to work with us on a sensible integrated timetable and sensible integrated ticketing so if you get on a stage coach service first thing in the morning and
You come back on a cpca bus you can use one ticket so all sensible things like that um and and I think it’s entirely uh possible and right to reinstate this service in full from the funding that government has provided in the bip money and and that it must be done we cannot
Let this slide and to do anything else we just make a mockery of everything that the that the mayor himself and the cpca has been saying about leveling up and and bus services um I’m certain that stage coach is watching this meeting uh and I’d like to ask them directly from
This board which I believe is united in this desire to go back to its early morning timetable for the number nine and go back to the 6:00 a.m. from littleport start time uh and to work with cpca on a timetable that works for the good of their customers who are our
Residents and for the sustainability of the route as a whole because if you undermine it in in the way that I think is going to happen then it will fall apart it will become unsustainable and Stage Coach won’t want to run a service on it at all probably because you know
Unfortunately Emma’s gone but Emma was telling me at the break how she needs to get on a service at 6:00 a.m. in the morning and the fact that stage coach have greedily um you know they were running a 6 a.m. and a 7 a.m. they’ve
Cut all of that and plumped for one in the middle at 6:35 means that we’re now no longer able to work sensibly around that timetable and it it changes the timetable for the rest of the day really unhelpfully um so you know I’m putting stage coach on notice that if they’re
Saying they’re going to be flexible and non-legal challenging and helpful and integrated timetable they need to come to the table and let’s make this timetable change back to something is sensible for residents and let’s get back to those 10 Journeys at least per day uh that that we need in both
Directions um and just as a general comment I personally feel we need to be much Bolder you know we’ve had political punch-ups in the past about nasty Tories trying to cut bus services but we all know that a route that’s costing £1 1225 per Journey per passenger to the
Public purse cannot continue we’re trying to improve it and let’s see what happens with that but I’ll eat my hat if we get it down to anything close to 12 quid I can’t see it happening so I I implore us all to be United and much Bolder about the nons sustainable routes
That just don’t attract reasonable patronage because you know we shouldn’t be shy about cutting those services and I know it’s painful I get it um but if they don’t stack up you know we need to put our efforts into services that can stack up and all these new services that
Are on the table so you know why would on Earth would we wait to do that let’s just do it and be bold about it um like I said in the previous sorry my last point we also need a timeline on DRT okay um like I said in the last item
Quite clearly is more in common with each other than what divides us uh so I’ll ask the officers to come back on a few points there the issue of the uh large subsidy for one particular bus route you might be able to give an update on where we are with that um and
Just the process behind what we’re doing Andel will fill in on the details sorry I think the microphone’s going a bit f oh sorry I’m not used to all this Tech yet sorry um so in terms of the timelines um yeah absolutely that’s work that’s ongoing at the moment
Particularly in terms of trying to work out uh the resources that we need to parallel track so many different things so yes very happy to um update uh the board on those timelines and continue to report back to tick on those timelines but agreed on on that including DRT just
To be clear um in in terms of the one and obviously the one pound Fair will be part of that maybe Andrew can talk when he speaks just about the setup costs point that that you raised um reg regarding the bus shelters yes that will be um obviously we’ve had the audit done
Which is really informative but as you say we need to now be mindful of um that being perhaps year one of a longer term program what are the criteria for that and we we need to develop that so that again um will need to considered um through through
Tick um regarding the the number nine specifically um obviously we do as as of course you know engage regularly with with Stage Coach um and have conversations with them both within a group through the bus operators Forum but also individually as well um and absolutely that is key to our working
Forward and of course is absolutely key to um an interim enhanced partnership model um as well because that’s obviously about negotiating better outcomes within the the scope of that enhanced partnership one of the issues that we’ve got just in terms of timing and and absolutely we will both
Undertake to take away as many actions as we can do but in terms of of moving forward in order to be able to get a service up and running by the 14th of April we will have to look at what is the art of the possible in in in that
Way because we’ve already gone out to procure um the solutions and we’ll need to deliver those as a base and then look at that and then see what we could do on top of that so I think we have to be committed to what we can do look at
Budgets look at other ways of of handling it but be mindful of where we are in the process and that it might be a base from which we can build but we absolutely undertake to build on that base you probably deserve a chance only yeah I think only two extra things to
Pick up on really I think related to the bus stops I think it’s referenced in the paper probably a practical example might be zipper 3 which might be zipper two I know in terms of the numbering but there might be instances in rural areas where there’s not the infrastructure in place
At the moment to support those new services in terms of bus stops and shelters so we’re making sure we’re integrating that into the bus stop work as well as the preset work to make sure that’s linked so when we launch a new service the infrastructure areas to support residents in using that service
Um I think the only other thing to add on in terms to the nine we are speaking Stage Coach obviously R inated ticketing we’re just waiting once we’ve done the tender and the standstill period to be able to appoint the contractor for that contracted service um Stage Coach are
Amable to working through that I don’t want to pitch it as a blocker but they obviously concerned about the abstraction of fairs from that commercial service but I think we can work through that depending on the contractor that comes in okay um so just before we take a
Break for um oh Anna sorry you want wanted to come in do wish there was a way of taking a mask off without taking your glasses off at the same time um I think this has been a really really powerful and useful discussion I really find it very helpful
As lead member for transport when we’re all saying the same thing and we’re all raising the same issues about the current unreg ated system and the problems that that causes so I think that’s it’s the same sense of Unity on this that we heard at tick again that
Cross party sense of more needing to happen um from the first just referring first of all to the nine I think from the first moment that Nick and I heard sorry mayor Nick and I heard that there was an issue with the nine and we asked officers to look into
Immediately into ensuring that something was in place so there was no root loss um in terms of people not being able to pick up anything at a cliff Edge point we knew that this was going to need to be a multiphased approach so I think we’re all aware that
It’s a sticking plaster now and that pretty much I think is where we are it means that there is something but we absolutely need to look at what happens next I think we’ve always understood that um I was talking to officers yesterday actually about really making
Sure that we can find exactly where we might be able to target funds whether there might be any funds available for additional work um and perhaps Andrew might be a to say a little bit more about where we might be able to find that extra money more broadly I think this
Discussion absolutely shows how important the precept was in the context of extremely low central government funding and I want to quote something here from the campaign for better transport which came out just the other day and they were bringing out a very powerful list of exactly what funding
Per head is going into um buses in different authorities the combined Authority according to the campaign for better transport gets 575 ahead for buses compared with the highest funded Authority which gets 235.68 continue to do that because the more funding we have in the system the more we are able to support several
Roots like this I think that’s absolutely crucial the only other thing I wanted to say again to reassure councelor Bailey on on this issue that I think officers would attest the fact that safety and lighting at bus stops is a key factor that both man Nick and
Myself have been emphasizing all the way through this it has to be a really key part of what we do on bus off infrastructure so another point of agreement breaking out around the room I feel thank thank you uh thank you Anna I’m going to put
It to this Clos this down I think most people have spoken where they need to thank you officers for the work thank you for the report and thank you for your answers um my only comment taking chair’s privilege is that um in amongst it all you know as we’re trying to get
To the mini I’ll admit to frustrations not just with the current system but as you know despite all the hard work of our officers how long it’s seemingly taking but we got to do it right we’ve got to avoid uh the potential for any challenge about our processes so I’ve
Been accepting of that have regularly had contact with operators across the area and I think it is important to work I they may well have been watching this um meeting and I think there is things to be learned from our comments from across different board
Members I did ask of my own team uh particular the comm’s team to say that however we must not leave sight of some of the stuff that we can be doing in the meantime and although it is now quite um I raise a smile is a the one- pound
Youth Fair so if you’re under 25 you’re class as a youth I’ve always like to think of it as a kid for a quid or May’s FS that’s a positive story um I believe you’ve put in the report that hopefully that could be arriving as soon as May or
June this year real positive and I appreciate there will be startup costs but if it’s something that’s really popular and it’s thing that actually drives uh usership and helps enhance the opportunities for us to develop our business case then it may well be something that we can continue but
Obviously budgets allowing and then of course there has been comments made about the bus stop infrastructure I’m pleased to hear about the audit who knew there was almost 3,000 bus stops in cambri and Peter Well we do now so um thank you again for all the hard work I
Hope our comm’s team will be making a lot of positives about um what we’re going to hopefully agree on as I now go to the vote this Anna Smith as the lead member of Transport I was I’m assuming you’re happy to propose the recommendations so I now need a
Seconder uh I will take that from the other Deputy Council Le singer and then I will now move to the vote on the recommendations so just to note that recommendations A and D are for noting and now moving on to recommendations B and C they do require a vote in favor by
At least two-thirds of all members or their substitute members appointed by constituent councils to include importantly members appointed by Cambridge County Council and peterb city council or their substitute members um those in favor uh it’s unanimous okay thank you everybody uh We’ve almost hit quarter to two and I am
Absolutely appreciative of the hard work that has taken to get us through to this point I would suggest 15 minutes is required for us all to take a break and then we’ll be coming back for items 11 I think to8 19 um thank yes yeah no no whatever it takes e e e
E e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e just both yeah the two Johns both Johns have gone right um look I appreciate we had to do
A lot of talking in the last one entirely appropriately um there is still quite a few uh reports to get through of which some do need the the presence of particularly County Council and City C peterb city council so I’m going to suggest first of all we go to um 13
Which is the um the greater Southeast Net Zero Hub delegations um sorry uh is that right is hold on is that is Maxine here 13 B 13 so we’re going to do 13B sorry so I going to we’ll do 13B and then we’ll jump to 17 which are tick
Recommendations and then we’ll try and get back on thing please over to you Adina thank you chair um this report reports ask for delegations um to be granted to the um assistant director of um skills um to accept CC funding um and delegated authority to executive director of economy and growth to
Approve enhance business support Arrangements um I will try not to go through the whole delegations because they are set out um in um the report um there are four recommendations um and B has um four um Sub delegations in there and D has um two sub delegations um these
Delegations are required um for officers in the intervening period um between the pre-election the start of the pre-election and the annual general meeting and um it’s quite usual um for these delegation reports to come to the board um there was one last year it’s just to ensure that there continuity of
Service um and that decisions that need to be made can be made very quickly without any consequences um due to the delay thank you chair okay thank you so um as councelor Edna Murphy is the lead member for governance are you happy to propose recommendations yes I am okay I will
Second them and we can open open the report to debate by the board if there’s anybody wants to make any comments sorry I mean appreciate there’s a lot of work goes into these things but there is no people wanting to make any comments so recommendations a b and d
Require simple majority can we go for a uh vote of those in favor okay and those against and those abstaining one abstain okay and then if we move to recommendation C which requires a two-thirds majority to include representatives from C County Council Peter city council uh those in
Favor those against and one and abstaining okay fine so that’s 13B um ticked off um I’m now going to move to um we’ll go to the recommendations from the transport and infrastructure committee um so item 17 is recommendations for the transport and infrastructure Committee of which
Council rer Smith chairs as I say here recommendations have already been debated in detail and approved by our subject experts on the committee does anyone have any particular questions or comments on the specific reports within this agenda item or are we all happy to take these recommendations on
Block on block okay so Council alna Smith as lead member are you happy to propose all these recommendations as set out in the summary report I am I will second them more than happy to do that so we’ll move to vote on the recommendation ations those in favor those against and those abstaining
Okay so thank you got 17 done um did you suggest that we should do senior appointments okay we’re going to do as it’s important uh Rob’s worry about core reing I’m just going to jump sorry for anybody watching needs be as needs must item 15 is the report on senior
Appointments Rob Bridge the chief executive will introduce the report you just need to ask one officer to leave the room which is obvious one of the recommendations so oh sorry yeah okay um so so thank you mayor um obviously um I I’m really pleased actually that we’re in a position to to
Put to you as a board appointment to two of the statutory officers uh the section 73 officer and our monitoring officer uh both important to the organization but also to the wider system across C Peterborough um as the report set out there was a thorough process that took
Place last week or concluded last week with interviews on the 13th and 14th of um what month May March um and I just wanted to make the point that obviously at this point in time for people looking in the names of these individuals are not in the public domain and I know in
Previous meetings it has been asked about the timings of such things and it’s purely for the respect of their current organizations and the process that they need to go through um so so subject to your decisions um and that detail of the two officers who who I
Have to say uh both performed incredibly well uh in both of those interviews uh last week um they there will be a process of concluding uh resignation and then announcements um so we will make sure that that comes out so I think you know the only other point is the reason
That um one of our assistant directors left the room is there is likely to be a gap between Nick Bell departing the organization and um a newcomer starting and so it is we still need to have a statutory section 73 officer and although um Rob performs
The deputy role I think it’s only right recognized properly uh in that period of time whatever that period of time looks like so um the recommendations are set out obviously I can’t ask answer many questions if you do want to ask things we would have to go into an exemp
Session but hopefully with what you’ve seen uh in those papers and the recommendations you can approve them okay well I’m going to move these recommendations from the chair I need a second uh councelor singer you were there all part of the party last week um anybody want to comment okay so we can
Move straight on to the vote on the recommendations recommendations a and to B are just to note the others require majority vote we’ve noted A and B for the uh CDE and F those in favor uh those against and abstaining okay well done thank you all of them and
Congratulations to to the new appointments as you said very pleased to be part of that process bringing excellent Talent into the organization right um we now can hop back to a little bit more of the as it was planned the 11 is the corporate performance report uh Q3 2023 to 24 and
Jules yent uh head of policy Insight performance will introduce this um report oh and thank you thank You to you J thank you chair so this is the corporate performance report for the combined Authority up to quarter three of this financial year it includes a summary report a balanced scorecard a dashboard for each kpi a dashboard for our most complex programs and projects and an update on Headline priority
Activities we have changed how the balance score card is presented in this report which is on page 183 uh we have responded to members requests to focus on what has changed by only including the changed metrics in the covering paper but we have retained the full balance scorecard in appendix a
We’ve also made a change to how performance is analyzed against direction of travel we’ve introduced 5% tolerance to enable members to better see Trends rather than fluctuations at this stage we are testing and refining our approach and would welcome your feedback on whether this change is indeed helpful indicators are class as wholly
Owned by the combined Authority when the ability to change the indicator lies wholly or mainly with us new data is available for all of these 12 metrics two metrics are rated red for direction of travel compared to direction of improvement and three metrics are rated red for current period performance compared to
Target IND indicators are classed as state of the region when the ability to change the indicator does not lie wholly or mainly with us new data is available for four of these metrics of the complete set of 15 state of the region metrics four of rated red for direction
Of travel and two a derated are try again are rag rated red for performance compared to Target developmental work since quarter 2 report has largely focused on the state of the region project for example a key theme of the state of the region evidence base will be tackling
Inequalities although this is a separate project we do expect to recommend some revisions to the state of the region kpis once this project has completed in July programs and projects are classed as most complex when a combined Authority funded program or project is considered most significant in terms of
Value strategic fit or where there would be sign significant impact if we fail to deliver this list is subject to change new data is presented for all seven of these programs and projects and none are rated red I’m very happy to take questions okay thank you Jules um is anybody want to councelor
Bodden I have mentioned before uh mayor uh my concern that we are failing effectively to measure uh inequalities which exist within the combined Authority area and if we’re failing to measure those inequalities then we’re failing to be able to measure what success or otherwise we’re having in taking action to reduce those
Inequalities I’ve also accepted that many of the DAT much of the data which is available is horrendously behind times and one of the metrics that we do have metric seven which is the number of local superport areas in the in the uh combined Authority area which are in the
Top uh two desiles of uh of the national listing that is only produced on a once every foure basis uh I think it it really is important for us and it is something I will bring forward again in future I think it really is important for us to
Give thought as to how we can better man manage even if it is by secondary measures to have some degree of better measurement about inequality and inequality changes uh than we than we have at the moment uh because uh it just undermines any intent and I know I I
Respect and accept the mayor’s personal commitment to this but it undermines any such Commitment if we’ve got no measurement either of where we are now where we want to be in the future and what the effect of our policies are on trying to get from place a to place B so
That’s the first thing and the second thing is I would suggest that the increase in the number of lsoas which are in the top 20% most deprived in the country shouldn’t be regarded as being a green rating if anything it should be a red rating on on on uh on
Matrix Matrix 5 accept metric 5 accepting of course how behind all that information is councilor and the singer thank you um so so firstly I wanted to say that these did get a very thorough grilling at the overview and scrutiny committee um and uh well done
To Jules for standing up to that and I think there’ll be some other interesting stuff coming out from that committee which I observed um but the other thing I wanted to add was that I think we ought to be taking metrics 10 11 and 13 quite serious iously which all um refer
To our um efforts to tackle climate change or failure to do so um and particularly metrics 10 and 11 are looking at the um the impact of increasing transport emissions in our area um so we’ve spent quite a lot of time talking about buses today and I think we all agree that
There is a real need to increase the number of buses for a very very wide range of reasons I did just want to flag that um one of those reasons is because of the um quantity of Transport emissions that we have in our area and
We do need to to look at how we can improve that this is also something that the EV area capacity enhancements could be helping with so I just want to flag that those are quite serious thank you just to respond to councelor net singer without wanting to get into a
Ding-dong argument about this about the subject but it is a an absolutely inevitable result of the significant increase that we have in our population right across the ker and peterb area and the increased number of houses that we’ve got that there will be greater transport demands now I’m well aware of
Your uh personal position or your political position rather about what should be done about managing those transport demands but in the short term it should not be surprising that we’re seeing this given the increase in population thank you uh any other comments Anna Anna Smith
Sorry yeah so I I very glad to see we’re already looking at some of the inequality measures um so I won’t repeat anything on that um there were a couple of other things I I wanted to raise first of all to not the very concerning data that we’re seeing on Metric 14 on
The KSI data um and as chair of tick i’ I think we particularly in the light of obviously the very sad news that we had at the beginning of this meeting I think we should be very much continuing this conversation with Partners it clearly isn’t something that is entirely in the
Hands of the combined Authority by any means but it’s it’s deeply concerning nonetheless the other thing I just wanted to raise and I’m going to really apologize because this is something I probably should have raised before but I’m just looking at the metric on the number of house new housing completion
But per a thousand of the population I wonder if when we refresh the work on this metric we could include something very specific on um social housing within that so we understand um clearly house prices in some parts of this region are extremely high and there is a
Huge need for social housing across our region and that links back to some of the equalities points so it might be really interesting for us to dig into that in future good idea very good idea um any other comments oh oh always like to focus on the positives
But on this occasion I’ll flip the other way um metric 18 I think um it one that doesn’t immediately jump off the page is the most important metric on this summary but one might take a view or a personal view that the current website um is in serious need of improvement not
Just in in terms of accessibility score which is important but that’s the intent of its purpose and this joined up thing of selling the vision and the opportunities in our region um and I would certainly articulate a view that’s been shared at the business board that
The sooner we could focus on on some development of that the better which of course will I can I can see an officer um chomping at the bit do you want to come in uh Ed on this maybe share I think we’re there is that one working okay um yeah I think I agree with everything you just said out I think I said before that there is an mtfp Ask approved for Budget to redevelop the website but it’s coming at it the right way and that’s about
What role do we want the combined authorities website to play and looking at it from the point of view of our Target audiences how we want them to engage with us the content we want them to access the role and the positioning of of the business Board of the Thematic
Committees of this board as well and genuinely trying trying to create something that adds value to our constituent Authority sites but also the sites of Partners and stakeholders as well the online engagement tool I mentioned earlier for the shared vision is sitting on a on a separate platform
Because the current site isn’t capable of hosting it so it needs to be something that can bring all of that together into something that can effectively give people a a One-Stop shop for their opportunity to engage with the combin authority and our partners on on this
Stuff and in terms of the timeline for that work we absolutely want to take time to get the scope right and want to go through a proper process and give people an opportunity to feed into to what that looks like but it’s very much our ambition that by the end of this
Municipal year certainly into Q3 will start that development and have a tested ready to go finished product that builds on this wider Journey we’ve been on around transformation and change within coms and engagement as a whole as opposed to just the website as a one transactional piece we could crack on
And do that tomorrow but actually I’d rather take a bit more time to to look at the scope and look at the purpose and the role of it as opposed to you know cracking on and redeveloping something and ended up that we didn’t quite get it right because we didn’t take enough time
To do the the scoping piece our our secondary web Guru councilor Bowden wants to I’m not going to go into any details I was just I was pleasantly surprised but I fear that I might be uh unpleasantly surprised shortly I was pleasantly surprised to hear that this will be happening before
The end of the municipal year uh that is literally weeks away so so I’m absolutely delighted with that if it is true yes next Municipal Year sorry point of clarity um I’m just going to I’m going to use sort of mayor’s privilege sorry thank you Jules for but
I’m just going to ask uh Maxi narbar from the uh greater Southeast Net Zero Energy Hub I had the pleasure of seeing Maxine and her team in action at a conference down in London uh was it last week U Maxine you’ve been doing great things in terms of the Net Zero Energy
Hub and as for those who may well know we’re now seen much more as an Exemplar and uh people are asking us to help um however in item metric 24 the cumulative number of homes being re retrofitted through schemes led by the greater Southeast Net Zero Hub if you look at
Those obviously there would be questions to ask about progress in that area and going back to points that have been made earlier in the meeting about transparency about projects the expenditure how we get through things and knowing full well that this is an area where we’ve come into criticism
Some of it I would argue unfair but still criticism I would prefer if um an open kind of discussion about some of the current things we discussed and whatever things you feel are important to kind of explain where we are on this journey over to you Maxine thank you
Mayor um so just set the context we we’ve now closed out sustainable warmth that was very successful we even won an award two weeks ago for the largest regional scale project so we know we can deliver um hug 2 has been a real challenge for us um you may be aware it
Was you know a challenge early on it was in bargoed until March we didn’t get the detailed specifications from the Department till um quite late and it’s complex um it’s called the home upgrade Grant Phase 2 it followed on from what was called the hug one um the difference
Being is is that now we have um different I’m going to try and explain this simply um different property archetypes so it could be a mid Terrace end Terrace detached property Bungalow each of those property archetypes has uh assigned cost cap um for each you know for each property type for Energy
Efficiency measures and for clean heat um now to get a batch approved by the department so this is a new process as well each property goes into a um an automated batch system where it’s approved based on meeting the rules of the scheme so if I have a Terrace house
And I wanted to do solid wall insulation some ventilation Loft and a heat pump I would struggle to get it through that um cost cap because generally speaking the southeast our properties are larger than average so we have really struggled to get anything through um for the more substantial fabric
Measures we have seen some policy changes but that relates to clean heat so another one of our challenges is that we saw a lot of flats which you know needed a heating upgrade but they weren’t suitable for an air source Heat pump because she it’s quite difficult
Depending on where they are in the building to be able to do that um so Energy Efficiency storage heaters were the most logical um measure now measures are grouped into a and C categories and storage heaters was a c category which you had a 10% cap on so we couldn’t get
Storage heers through now that has now been changed and it’s made into a b measure so we can get some storage heaters through with the change in the um the clean heat not having a costat p archetype we can now do what they say is is create Headroom so if we find a
Property that has a lower um install cost for a clean heat measure we can use that Headroom to pay for a more expensive measure the issue we’ve had is is actually not being able to create any Headroom because our properties and the measures have just exceeded cost caps um
We with the complexity of the scheme all of our suppliers had to change their systems their data reporting to meet their requirements for them to get an understanding of how to put batches through that were going to be um passed has taken time so we’re only really now
Getting into the flow of being able to submit batches we thought we’d be putting 50 through you know a week we’re putting batches through sort of six or seven at a time and some properties are getting held back because they don’t meet the cost caps this is really
Complicated for a resident to understand because they might have a home where they’ve got really bad Windows the walls need doing and we’re saying well actually we can you afford to do a loft and some ventilation and put some PV on and that’s not really you know um
Palatable for all households who might just want to be reducing their bills through increased Energy Efficiency so again we’ve had a higher than um you know ever dropout rate for um consumers that would otherwise have been um eligible then the other complexity we have these are for off gas properties
Only and the um energy performance certificate data is the Baseline by which the um estimates made in terms of the number of properties and where they are now we found through doing you know different analytics and actually actually going on the street and door knocking is that 60% of that data is
Incorrect so when we used to have a um conversion rate of about 35% so 35% of people who applied for the scheme could get a measure that’s currently running at about 1 to 5% and we’re hoping we can get that to 10% so we have a lot of sunk
Costs as to our suppliers in actually getting these households um over over the line so it’s been incredibly complicated the policy changes have allowed for a higher income threshold 36,000 from 31,000 and it’s opened up the clean heat um you know opportunity however we shouldn’t be doing clean heat
Unless we’ve got an energy efficient home and we’re still very much restricted in those um archetype cost caps I hope I’ve explained that um in a way that’s it’s understandable by providing a few examples and but that’s really the challenges we’ve had in year one of delivery we’re currently going
Through a process with the Department to agree on year two and property numbers your ability to remain optimistic is your credit and I thank you for a very clear explanation I do think it’s important to have it on record and I would even argue that a takeaway point maybe speaking with uh
Possibly Bridget we should be maybe kind of pointing out the difficulties that an excellent team is having and we should be writing to the right people in central government about saying how can we help and what we can do and I your input in that would be very much
Appreciated so that’s probably going to be an action point but I’m going to go to the lead member now who coming say thank you very much and you’ve taken the words out of my my mouth because I haven’t had an update for a while I’m sitting here you know with my drawer on
The table quite honestly it’s just so the 36,000 that’s whole household income is it as well that’s correct yes right okay I mean it and I’m presume what we’re seeing is is replicated throughout the the UK this isn’t something that’s or is this what I mean you said our houses tend to be
Bigger the delivery is under profile the of country so the the delivery is under profile across the country so there is a um what they call a midpoint review process going on um across all of the funded schemes in England that’s how I felt when I was chatting to her last
Week you need your microphone on Bridget otherwise people won’t hear about sorry if you wanted to design an impossible scheme this is kind of it it isn’t it really um I’d be very grateful if you’d help the mayor and myself and perhaps all the all the rest of the board
Members if they wanted to be co- signatories as well to something um pretty strongly worded to the you know the relevant minister at the moment and just you know yeah but I mean if you think about what we what want to get out out of it is there any you know are we
Just having a moan or you know we have we actually got a firm a firm ask for this because you know you know you’ve got a terrific team in place now all the will in the world we can’t get the flipping money out the door thank you okay well done
Chris I’m very sorry uh mayor to have been proven right when I said when we were talking about this and agreeing it uh we’d be unlikely to be successful and I may explain one of the reasons behind that and that is that that it’s an old adjective government that any government
Policy which manages to be put into place and doesn’t achieve 180 degrees opposite of what was originally suggested is regarded as being something of a success by the Civil Service and this is a prime example of the way in which government and bureaucracy fail a
Prime example of it and I pay tribute to our officers for the work they’ve done in trying to make a silk purse out of a sa ear okay pulling no punches there CHR thank you anybody else want to make a comment sorry thank you Maxine I did
Think it was important for you to come and and share your knowledge with everybody so that they’re aware of the situation I think we’ve got a little bit of a plan but I think we’ve got a long way to go to get this right and uh we
We’re with you all the way um fine that was my last comment on with regard to item 11 Jules you sat patiently there waiting for more questions but I think we’ve probably done the rounds so um just to kind of make a few points uh Council Murphy you are the lead member
For governance are you happy to propose the recommend ations have I done already yes I am thank you okay and I I will second so that’s say we’ve had a debate just to say that a to c actually needs a vote and D is for noting so on this we
Will now move to the vote on a Toc recommendations uh those in favor um and those against and those um abstaining thank you right so that’s been passed by a majority H sorry deep breath um uh item 12 uh quarter three uh corporate risk report Nathan thank you for coming to
The table you are our project manager and the pmo um project management office and you are here to introduce the report thank you yeah thank you mayor and good afternoon everyone so like you said this is item 12 so this is to note the Q3 corporate risk report this includes the
Corporate risk register in appendix one the risk dashboard in appendix 2 which sets out the uh risks by category proximity and scores and the heat map is appendix 3 which is a visual tool mapping out the risk scores the paper is also to note the update on progress of the risk software
Implementation and the risk deep Dives so managing risks and uncertainty is critical to the successful delivery of strategic aims to support the management of risk the risk management framework and procedure was approved at the September 2023 cpca board meeting this is the first risk report to board since its approval and is one
Further step to embedd in this framework as it is the first report it does not focus on recent changes and instead focuses on the status of the risks which can be found in 2.2 so all risks have been and continue to be reviewed monthly with risk leads um
And have been included in this report so overall there are 15 risks on the register of these 15 residual risk scores there is one red very high risk one Amber high risk 11 yellow medium risks and two green low risks the very high risk is Future funding and the high risk is cyber
Security more information on both of those are in appendix 2 sorry in appendix one and in 2.2 of the paper so on the risk software in May 2023 the software was procured and it’s called for risk so the investment in new corporate web-based risk software allows for a central and auditable platform to
Register risks associated across the work program the corporate risk register is now on for risk um and we’re in the process of adding the service level risk registers following the completion of onetoone training regarding risk Deep dive so starting from the next time we bring it
To you in the Q4 report we will be completing a deep dive into those that exceed our risk appetite um and furthermore board members are able to request um a risk that you’d like us to do a deep dive into thank you happy to take any questions Nathan thank you for bringing
It um first question I think goes to council Bowden and then councilor Smith thank you mayor I could talk for hours if you’d let me which you probably wouldn’t about risk matrices and and my attitude towards risk risk risk assessment uh but I’ll I’ll limit myself
To one thing and I don’t want a public answer to this I would like an a private answer to members of the board uh and that is on the subject of the of the cyber security risk first of all I personally doubt that it’s appropriate for us to describe that risk as being
Unlikely uh but what and I I’m aware of an awful lot to do with cyber security uh in public authorities uh and in local authorities in this in this country what I’m not aware of from this report and in fact would have been inappropriate in this report and what I
Don’t want to become public but would very much appreciate knowing privately and would encourage all members of the board to see this is how our resilience to this risk matches other public bodies generally and other local authorities more specifically and I don’t want to go into any more detail because it would be
Inappropriate to do so but I think we as board members need to be given that degree of awareness I don’t believe that we can significantly reduce the risk that there is of the likelihood of cyber security problem uh there are things we can do to mitigate that risk in terms of
What we do and it’s particularly important that we don’t advertise our weaknesses so that’s why I’m asking mayor if it’s appropriate if it’s appropriate mayor that’s why I’m asking if that if that report could be given to us as individual members privately yeah I obviously appreciate that thing but I
I can see Nick who holds is a senior officer some uh aspects of this uh question I’d appreciate if you could maybe give some reassurance in yes yeah and also um do you want to Nick come to the table if Bridget you want to come in thank you thank you very much s
Uh lovely so so firstly I really like the the Grid on page I think it’s 23 232 the risk grid I think that’s a really nice graphic um and then I also wanted to talk about the you know the um cyber cyber security because I mean I think I
Think I was told yesterday day there’s been a hit on a public body not too far from here uh this this week alone so you know it’s a daily it’s a daily occurrence um so in the relation to the table that sits underneath that nice grid um I just want to understand the
Targets because you know and are these targets within a time frame or are they targets you are they end of end of play targets because on cyber security I would have thought that you wanted to be so very very well protected that your your target risk was low you know you
Don’t you don’t Target to have a risk that’s higher than the the minimum if you can avoid it so I just just needed to understand that thank you I I don’t know I mean I’m interested to hear ni but I know just by inherently because we’re a public body and possibly
People think we are more likely to be targeted that could be in itself one reason but I’ll leave it to you Nick to come back on these things yes thank you um if I can pick that point first then come back to council bordens if that’s okay um I
Think the issue with the target risk to me is it’s where we realistically think we’re going to get to by the time we’ve put all the potential controls in place I think the issue with cyber security is that you know there are some very very well funded and very intelligent people
Out there um potentially with State actors as well who are regularly working on Cyber issues and trying to find more cyber Frailty in a range of organizations and therefore trying to keep up with them is the issue as much as possible and realistic trying to get
That to low I think would be incredibly difficult for any organization not just one that’s you know has has a funding and capabilities of the combined Authority but about to C the burdens Point um absolutely and very happy to provide the board members with a confidential note in relation to all the
Work that is going on at the moment in relation to cyber security and also that assessment in terms of where we are and where we believe we are on that one it’s something as well that of course a governance are interested in and we’ll be doing a similar thing with them as
Well through there but very happy to provide that note to you councelor bden and to the board than thank you Nick if you could just stay there for the moment uh Al yes it was just a quick one um actually in the context of cyber security and those broader mitigations firstly I
Agree whilst aspirationally you’d want it to be low if you had a low rating I wouldn’t believe you um um diplomatically and secondly in terms of some of the cyber security processes ISO 270001 um we want to try and collaborate and make our resources available I do
Have a specialist team who work within my organization that would be able to give you some free cross check on on what you’ve put together and I’m sure it’s fantastic but it’s always nice to have a fresh pair of eyes so the offer’s there if I may that would be incredibly
Helpful thank you Al and back to council ven I think Al’s comment has is really really insightful in the sense that it just demonstrates how generally and they always accept in both directions but generally the private sector especially the large private sector has invested a lot more time effort and money into
Cyber security than the public sector has and we all understand how the public sector decides how to spend money uh and maybe the private sector has a more realistic assessment of the of the risks which you’re involved in not spending money in this particular
Area Okay um no more hands in the air so um first of all thank you n Nathan uh thank you for bringing it uh when I hear risk I get slightly worried but I I appreciate there something that we need to be looking at in all its formats um
Very well put together some positive feedback there from all of us um but we’ve been asked to note it and we have done that no vote is required we can move on many thanks Ethan um we’ll now move on to 13A um which is the greater Southeast Net Zero Hub delegations and
This is uh to come from you Maxine um having already had a starving role I’m I’m inviting you back to just talk about the as your lead Regional head to introduce the report and then obviously talk about the delegations thank you mayor um so this report updates the greater Southeast Net
Zero Hub scheme of Delegation that was approved at the combined Authority board in July 2023 the change is to update the senior responsible officer from the director of resources and performance to the director of place and connectivity and that’s to make decisions relating to the business of the Hub The Hub has
Governance and project boards that provide strategic Direction and make advisory decisions on HUB funds this is a requirement of onet zerou with the Department of energy Security net zero that requires the Hub board to provide the Strategic Direction on behalf of stakeholders across the greater Southeast region and to be involved in
Decision- making the combined Authority has powers to delegate functions that are not reserved to it to committees offices and other local authorities it cannot delegate functions to individual members of The Hub board to enable The Hub board to be involved in decision- making the combined Authority can
Delegate to an officer to make decisions on behalf of the combined Authority board the director of place and connectivity will be the SRO for the Hub and as such can have delegations to undertake functions to enable the acceptance commissioning and delivery of projects and programs of work the recommended delegations Grant authority
To undertake activ ities to meet the objectives of Theus agree variations to M us accept newus vary the capital and revenue delivery of domestic retrofit schemes within set threshold administer Grant funded programs and set up advisory boards steering groups and funding panels the delegations are set out in the paper with all decisions
Being reported back to the combined Authority board and all the environment and sustainable communities committee where noted the chair of the environment and sustainable communities um committee will be consulted alongside other senior officers in the Authority so um councelor Bridget Smith as the lead member for communities and environment are you happy to propose these recommendations yes please thank you very much indeed and there’s a seconder I’ll take that from you Lucy um does anybody want to oh sorry we we open
To discuss now just a question if I may may and I think I know what’s intended in this but I I didn’t read this in this way my understanding is that the intention of this is that it is a a uh uh a permission which is going to be
Granted uh to uh delegate a whole host of responsibilities up to certain levels solely in in relation to the work of the Hub none of it is in relation to the work of the combined Authority I may just have that confirmed that that that I’m correct in saying that um yeah over
To you Maxine that is correct been distracted um thank you again Maxine I think we we’ll go to um a vote on this vote on this recommendation those in favor um those abstaining okay so no one against it but uh majority okay thank you again uh Maxine
Um thank you again for your diligence everybody update on this state of the region um Jules yent head of policy insight and performance the table is yours once again uh would you like to introduce this report please thank you chair I’m pleased to present an update
On the development of the state of the region 2024 project a clear need for a ro for a robust state of the region evidence base to underpin our decision- making was identified in the 2022 Improvement program and and included in the 2023 to2 corporate strategy as a key
Deliverable it will enable us and our partners to better understand the current and potential future economic socioeconomic and environmental state of our region it will inform the development of a long-term ambition for Cambridge and petb as a place our positioning with government and deepening Devolution and inward
Investment proposals and it will give a clear sense of areas that we need to prioritize underpinning a call to action for coordinated policy and strategy development we are very grateful for the work that is taking place across the system on this project the review is being co-designed and co-produced with a
Broad Partnership of stakeholders from local government Higher Education Health and voluntary Community sectors working groups are meeting regularly and giving valuable advice and challenge members and combined Authority Chief Executives have also given helpful feedback to a progress update report to date four of the eight work streams are complete a policy and
Strategy review a literature and best practice review data framework and progress update report the data collection and Analysis digital assets promotion and communication are in progress considerable further engagement with members and offices is planned after Easter including a workshop with board overview and scrutiny and thematic committee
Members we aim to present the state of the region 24 report and Associated digital assets to board in July and to update the review annually I’m happy to take questions over to you Chris thank you thank you mayor uh I was delighted to see in paragraph 5.4 under purpose that
The first item and I assume these are being put in an order for a particular reason that the first item under purpose was the opportunity to challenge inequalities and ensure that these are clearly drawn out so I look forward when we see more detail coming through that
We will see exactly how data is going to be able to be utilized first of all to measure where we are then to allow the challenge to take place and to work out how we can draw out that information to change the policies that we have to achieve the objective that you quite
Honestly said you had that you want to challenge and reduce these inequalities mayor I think that was a compliment so I’ll take that CH so that’s good thank you um Al um for one about um in a commercial world I’m all for market research understanding where you’re at and where
Your priorities are I think the one question which shapes around this and I do wholly support this uh and we we across all aspects within the business board we’re always looking for evidence and and actual data to make informed decisions but the question that will always continue is as part of that
Process how will we ensure that it actually shapes decision making and doesn’t remain itself looking a very nice document that we can refresh in a few years time now that might be something that’s ahead of the curve in terms of preparation but I’m Keen that as part of that working with groups
Scrutiny groups and other leaders that we can also shape how we’re going to measure impact Jules do you w to as a challenge do you want to come up with a quick oneliner maybe or yeah so I think the important point is this it’s a project
But it’s not a one-off so it’s the start of a journey and we’ve established a a really helpful collaboration as I described with such a broad partnership that that which will continue um and uh one of the the purpose of the policy and strategy review is to look at that
Future pipeline of planned strategy and policy development work and ensure that the evidence Bas is responding to the needs of of th that pieces of work and then we will continue to work together I can see a hand from Bridget councelor Smith uh thank you so and the
Little bit where it shows who all the partners are I’m not seeing the the Oxford to Cambridge pan Regional partnership there now that maybe because it’s not appropriate but bear in mind that you know they are putting together a data Observatory which will have vast amounts of sort of overlays particularly
As well as all the sort of economic stuff and the you know the the infrastructure information there’s going to be an awful lot of environmental stuff there about environmental assets and so on so I think there’s probably quite a lot we can pinch from them but
On the other hand there’s also quite a lot we can input into them so you know I just think we there may be a good reason but if not is it something we could look at please you want to come back on that Jules yes certainly and that’s a really
Exciting piece of work that they’re doing um so the way that partnership is working is that I’m actually on their Steering group so I’m a part partner for them um and uh that’s leading to some great conversations about possible shared um commissioning of future research reassured thank
You okay um thank you again j i you know towards the end the meeting probably doesn’t do you justice for this ongoing work but you say coming to us July we’ll look forward to it so we um asked to note the report um we’ve had it presented to us in a very uh
Enthusiastic way which we have done now no vote is required we can move on thank you jumping over 15 which we’ve already covered I’m now going to move to 16a which is a report on the careers Hub Academic Year 2024 to 25 a report on this subject was presented
To the skills and employment committee on the 4th of March but some funding aspects were still unresolved at the time this report gives the additional information and I now ask councelor Lucy nessinger as lead member for skills to introduce the report Laura gimer strategic careers Hub lead joins us
Online hello Laura if there are any questions um so Lucy over to you thank you I’ll be very brief um this is this is a very good news story um uh it’s about um further investment in the uh careers work that the combined Authority is doing um and it’s very good that we
Have now got more information about the funding I think it’s arrived but um that’s I don’t think I’ve got much more to say than that thank you um thank you for Laura for being here in case we needed is there any questions specifically for um our lead member for skills or indeed
Laura so it’s a good news story which we want to vote on thank you very much to Laura for hanging around for a long time not to have any questions okay so um as a lead member Lucy I’m assuming you are proposing the recommendations do I have a
Second councilor Smith um so we’ll move to the vote those in favor against and abstaining okay carried by majority 16b on now recommendations for from the skills and employment committee um so these recommendations have already been debated in significant detail and indeed approved by our subject experts on the
Committee Council Lucy ninger as the lead member of skills are you happy to propose the recommendations in this report uh and do I have a second there I’ll take that from bridet Smith um unless anyone has any comments to make on this item we will move to the vote on the
Recommendations um as they are written down those okay right those in favor those against and abstentions okay one again thank you um we’ve already done 17 as we rushed through earlier on which means we can now jump to 18 which are recommendations from the business boards
Um way well hands in the air um but these have already been debated in detail and approved by our subject experts on the business board just to add here however that the overview and scrutiny committee on Monday discussed the business board terms of reference and governance and are indeed fully
Supportive of clearly defined roles for the representatives on the thematic committees to ensure consistent engagement they have requested the role profiles to be circulated to overview and scrutiny members as well as the members of the Thematic committees once they are approved which officers will ensure is done does anyone have any particular
Questions or comments on the specific reports within this agenda item or are we all happy to take these recommendations on block um and before we move to that um Al Kingsley as chair of the business board are you happy to propose all the recommendations as set out in this summary
Report and I am happy to be your seconder unless anyone has any comment to make oh sorry we have a a comment to make Council Bowden the floor my apologies mayor there was one thing which struck me uh and again if if this needs to come back as a written answer
I’m perfectly happy with that but on the dashboard for the UK shared Prosperity fund a data is given by districts showing the amounts allocated the amounts which have been spent or or claimed and then an evaluation and every single evaluation just says underspend and whilst the almost inevitably there
Will be an underspend on the total amount I’m more interested in knowing are we on target for spending and I just I don’t demand an answer now but I think it would be really helpful to have that information available to us maybe I’ll give you a very brief answer because I
Know it’s something that is being is being developed on on many of those opportunities it’s about timelines of when things start when can you just come a bit closer so we can hear your words of um yeah I I think we can certainly provide a bit more detail in some cases
It’s it’s slightly misleading because it isn’t always about exactly where the the start point is and where we’re measuring those projects from but I’m happy to toak break down there okay I um chief executive um support Ro yeah um just to add to to what Al has just said what we
Are in the process of developing is a bit better detailed dashboard that will be shared with each chief executive leader for the spend profiled spend and where they are with all those projects that hasn’t quite been finalized yet and it’s something I’m going to be talking about with the chief exective next week
So it doesn’t land in all your inboxes as a surprise okay uh right unless anyone has any further comment we’ll move to the vote on the recommendations those in favor ah I’m pleased to say that uh those against and so that’s unanimous thank you for so just as a closing reminder to
Everyone that the board will next meet on the 5th of June 2024 and that is an actual annual meeting and actually will be held at the wonderful angle rusen University peterb could I just say a big thank you for all board members um for all officers whove managed to stay the
Distance we’ve just managed to get it under five hours but I’m grateful for your time and your due diligence with that save home and the meeting is closed e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e