Agenda item

Report of the Leader

The Leader of the Council introduced the report and explained that the Council, together with all the other local authorities in Gloucestershire, was a key partner in the development of the Gloucestershire Strategic Economic Plan which would support a bid for Growth Plan funding to the Government in March 2014. He added that whilst Cabinet held the formal decision making powers to authorise the process it was felt that Council should have an opportunity to comment on it. He emphasised that there was a very tight schedule for approving the process.

The Leader stated that there was a mechanism for signing off the plan and he was keen to obtain the support of all local councillors. Members were invited to feedback directly to the Leader or via Group Leaders. In terms of governance, a local joint committee, comprising members of the local authorities, would oversee the input to the process. This was business led but local authorities had a role in coordinating funding. The Leader would attend the meetings of the Joint Committee. He explained that the committee had a process of majority voting but if there was an issue specific to a particular district, the countywide approach was that this could not be voted in against the will of the authority in that area. He also added that the committee could not stop the things an authority was already doing in an area, for example Cheltenham already provided a local business advice service.

The Leader also informed that the County intended to establish a scrutiny body, similar to the County Council’s Health and Care Overview Scrutiny Committee, comprising 6 members from the County Council and 6 representatives from the district councils. The Leader stated that the person going to the Joint Committee meeting would announce the decision to be taken in advance and this decision could be called in locally.

Members discussed the issue and the following points of clarification were raised :

• The figure of 3200 homes referred to in the document related to the potential development capacity at junction 10. This number had not been incorporated into the JCS
• Barn Farm which ran alongside junction 10 was in the ownership of CBC.
• Resolution 4 referred to authorities not requiring a vote by Council
• Executive functions were delegated to the Leader and he was able to delegate them to Cabinet and anyone else
• A request for a budgetary contribution was expected at some point as a post would be created to coordinate the process but had yet to be allocated. In any case CBC would contribute one-seventh of the cost. Longer term there would be discussions on how to fund the proposed infrastructure whether this be by the use of the New Homes Bonus, pooled business rates or the community infrastructure levy
• In response to a question on timings the Leader commented that they were working to a very tight schedule and Government was “making it up as they went along”.
• It was clarified that under paragraph 4.3, 1^st bullet point the protocol was not to impose any conditions on a particular area that it didn’t want, the aim was to work collaboratively
• The Leader undertook to pass on the comment as to whether the proposed county scrutiny committee would have call-in powers on decision making. It was important that the scrutiny process worked properly.
• The Leader pointed out that the SEP was a strategic document and the LEP’s business plan should align itself accordingly. The SEP was drawn up based on specific criteria from Government but he acknowledged that it was important to have a balance to ensure industries such as agriculture and tourism were not forgotten.

RESOLVED (unanimously)

To note the proposal to establish the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Joint Committee.