West Yorkshire Combined Authority - Thursday 12 October 2023, 11:00am - Feedback Tab - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Thursday, 12th October 2023 at 11:00am

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collected.

Good morning everybody, and thank you for joining us at the Combined Authority meeting today before we start the meeting, I just wanted to say a few words about the prime minister's decision to cancel HS2 during his speech to the Conservative party conference last week.

I hope you will have seen that I worked really closely with mayors of both Conservative and Labour mayors across the country to oppose these plans, but unfortunately are are appeal, fell on deaf ears. The decision to scrap HS2 has enormous consequences for our region's economy and the prime minister's broken more than a decade of consensus on the infrastructure needs of the nation and created uncertainty which is the last thing

businesses in West Yorkshire and investors need in the current climate. The prime minister said earlier this week that alternative investments set out in his Network North document were merely illustrative of what could be delivered. This simply is not good enough. Bradford needs the new through station in the city centre, linking it to the main line. West Yorkshire needs a mass transit system, but we can't wait for the 2030 s for the promise of money that may let's be frank, never come.

so. Councillor Hinchcliffe and myself made it very clear to Mark Harper, the transport secretary, that we need these investments guaranteed and will continue the work we're doing on these projects to deliver the business cases and other approvals. We need to get spades in the ground as soon as possible to deliver for the people of West Yorkshire but other infrastructure needs don't go away. We still need to improve and enhance connectivity and capacity east to west across the North.

last week's announcements do little for that. By not addressing the bottlenecks at Leeds, Station and Manchester Piccadilly on need for better connectivity and capacity between Leeds and Sheffield and onto Birmingham remains. There were only more questions rather than answers raised on this last week. What we need is a proper integrated plan for rail infrastructure across the country, developed alongside mayors and local leaders who best understand the needs of their economies and communities, and I will work with anybody to bring this forward.

I am delighted that the leader of the Labour party has agreed to work with mayors and our teams on this and I await a similar invitation from this government I intend to write to the prime minister on these points on behalf of the people of West Yorkshire, so thank you for listening and let's move us on to apologies in any apologies.

no, theropod is everyone is here, thank you, any declarations of interest, any members have any interests they wish to declare on any item on the agenda.

no, thank you and then moving on to Item 3, I am not aware there are any items today that are exempt.

therefore we won't need to exclude the press and public at any time during this meeting moving on to item 4 minutes of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Meeting 28th of September this year, or are there any comments or questions on the minutes? Councillor Lamb, thank you ma t it's a matter of accuracy at the last meeting I asked for and was given an assurance that the public consultation that was launched last week this week sorry would be done in a balanced way with all options to be considered and I just like that to be recorded in the minute please because it isn't reflected there at the minute

thank you so much for that. I'm sure we can amend those minutes. Thank you, Ian. So, with that taken into account, are we content to confirm these as an accurate record? Thank you, OK, Doak item 5. I am really delighted to have this item on the agenda. It's a conclusion of a huge amount of hard work with many different partners over the last couple of years and the delivery finally of one of my 10 manifesto pledges, and the report sets out how we will deliver the West Yorkshire Fair Work Charter which aims to include to improve the quality of jobs across the region, helping us to ensure that everyone can benefit from fair, just good work and delivered that inclusive economy we all want. Can I personally thank the steering group chaired by Kate Hainsworth all their hard working, seeing that seeing this through it's taken longer than we'd hoped, because I genuinely wanted to get this right, it wasn't just something to put on a shelf, albeit tick-box, it had to be something that absolutely delivered change and what we've developed is based on the principle of nudging employers in an approach that come in the water's lovely to improve the quality of work with supportive community of like-minded businesses before going on a journey of improvement which we can all support, and I'm so grateful to all the businesses and the trade unions who contributed to our thinking throughout the process, and I am pleased that both employers and unions have endorsed the charter we have developed. I'm delighted also to say that we've got over 40 early adopters and they signed up already across a range of businesses across sizes and sectors

so assuming I am hopeful that the charter will be approved today we will formally launch it next month in Bradford, alongside some of those earlier doctors mob pass over to Councillor James Lewis as Chair of our business economy and innovation committee before passing on to Felix, thank you.

thank you, ma and again I think we all welcome this charter coming forward. There's been a a big piece of work and I think it's been really positive that is being that is involved such a broad range of partners as

as you've mentioned, it certainly something that I would encourage everybody to get behind and make sure now, when we agree this morning, that it becomes part of our work across West Yorkshire, we continue that partnership approach, thank you and because so many of our businesses are SMEs, we absolutely needed to bring them with us and to listen to their concerns and I'm so pleased that 40 already have signed up and hopefully this will begin be the beginning of a wider community across our region so Phoenix

thank you very much more, I couldn't have put it better myself the paper in front of you today, it really meant one to update you on the work that I've done to date and where we are with it and to seek your endorsement and approval first of the Charter itself which is about an appendix to the paper and also that the Combined Authority,

board agrees to be an early signatory to the charter. It would be remiss of us if we could not do that, so hopefully the board is happy to agree to that. I want to go through the whole paper box except to say we went through this really to pick up some of the key issues in our economy, which we know that this work will help. It will not solve all the problems, but it will help get us closer to some of the key key challenges that have been addressed in which the West Yorkshire Plan itself sets out

to to draw attention to it to help us.

address, so we know in our economy they are way too many people who are engaged in poor quality jobs, jobs that do not pay enough too many people suffering from health and mental wellbeing, challenges from from work and too many people from the work working age who are not able to engage at all in work.

if this charter allows us gives us another tool to be able to address that, working with employers, the idea with this, having learned from what other combined authorities have done, is to to encourage and work alongside employers instead of shaming some businesses. Saying that you're not part of this, so we were not going to talk to you is instead to open up a conversation communication and dialogue with businesses and to ask the question if you're not doing this, how can we work together to get there and if you are, then it's an opportunity for us to celebrate that's together and to make sure that we can get the word out to get more and more businesses to sign up to this. So, as the mayor's already said, 40 businesses have already indicated to us that they want to be part of this. We are confident that after the meeting today, when the news gets out, that number will go up

very quickly, the chateau itself focuses on five main areas, opportunity, security, wellbeing, employee voice, info and fulfilment, and the idea is that we will review this after implementing it in the first year to see how well we're doing pick up where we might not we might be falling short and to have another go at it to make sure.

we were able to achieve our objectives, so I commend this paper to you and hopefully in the position to approve. Thank you. Thank you for leaks, if I could at my thanks to two mayors and Steve Rotherham and Andy Burnham, who came to Bradford at the initial launch, because here in the North we want to say to employers across the North that this you if you are an exploitative employer, you are not welcome in the north and inland. If you work in the north, you will be protected by your leaders to get good, fair work so they were there at the beginning and Bradford University with really involved as well, so thank you to them. So are we happy to endorse and approve the Fair Work Charter to proceed to launch? We are happy and that the Combined Authority becomes an early signatory to the charter.

sorry.

of course, yes, apologies, Rebecca, thank you just wanted to check how this is going to be rolled out to businesses, how are you going to communicate to people about the charter and getting involved with it, and under 2.5 it does offer support to businesses who wants to take the first steps on the charter?

so who will be providing the support and how will that be funded and provided to them?

thank you Phoenix.

thank you ma due to the second one first, but Combined Authority has approved a bit of funding for us to implement this, so we will be working with partners in the first year, we will have an external partner who who will procure to work with us and they will offer that support to our businesses who want to sign up to this but who might feel Bassam,

barriers in the way or any further work that they need to do to be able to get there in terms of how we get the information out there, we use all our social media channels in our websites in all our events, but also in the work that we do, we engage and re-engage with businesses regularly, so this will be one of the things that we took to all the businesses and all employers that we engage with.

as the mayor said, if they are businesses who are saying actually they do not want to sign up to this, then I think there's an earnest conversation that we need to have as to whether these other businesses that we want to be engaged with or not.

thank you, Councillor Lamb, thank you mentioned a couple of points, first of all Councillor, how compliant we are currently as a Combined Authority and its constituent councils, and what are the metrics that were going to be measuring to tell us whether this is successful and having an impact?

Phoenix.

so the Charter itself, under each of the five areas of focus, picks out a bit more detail, and so for each one there is a metric as to whether the organisation has.

pizza, living, the real living wage or not as the set of metrics for each of them. So that's what that's what we will be looking at when we engage in conversations with with businesses. As I said at the beginning, the idea is not really a parcel Field is securing commitments from businesses to go on the journey with us together to you know to work on each of the five areas that are set out in the charter. So we're not looking to say, you've passed, you failed. Instead, we're seeking a commitment from businesses to say, Do you want to do this with us? Are you in a position to commit to doing these things with us

or not, and it's only if one businesses say absolutely not, that will have to have, or a bit of a conversation to reassure you in all the engagement we've done. It's very clear that most businesses are actually doing a lot of this already and we are probably maybe an ability to that party. Many businesses are doing this and are very proud to share that they are doing this and we're looking to actually be more positive about this and to celebrate that and to build a coalition of fair and purposeful businesses in West Yorkshire. Is there a sort of dwelling on the negative of? If you don't do this, then that will happen to you

I think that's a really it's welfare and Phoenix, but I think I've just been speaking to Ben and I think there is something about this that we could do with a bit more information that I've Alice Ben would you mind bringing to the CA in December some are analysis of how we're all doing can that would be certainly us as an organisation because of course we are police and crime as well and also we work with other companies, so I think just to get a sort of temperature test.

it has been in the forefront of our minds, but, just for clarity sake, I think it will be good, yes, Councillor Lamb yeah, I think that that's welcome grateful for that, I think it would be useful just to have a baseline of where we think we are as well across.

the region, in terms of how many people specifically do we think, are in low paid jobs and how many businesses do we think, are not compliant, so it's easy over time for us to see, so this is having an impact.

the other point I wanted to make, as as a small business operator satellite I don't know if I'm alone in that sat around the table, but I'd like to think my business does this as practice, what you sometimes find in a very, very small business it can be difficult and onerous.

to go through the task of demonstrating it

and in terms of support that Councillor Paulson referred to, I think it would be useful to put a bit more flesh on the bones to reassure particularly very small businesses that probably W in most cases are going above and beyond that actually they can easily demonstrate that it isn't an onerous task to be able to say that there they're doing the things that they're doing anyway and sometimes these things can end up being a bit cumbersome,

and I think your experience is very valuable and a voice that we heard from small businesses that if it's too onerous we're not gonna be involved, so we have made it as light-touch as possible and that you can be part of this enlightened group.

if you are hitting some of the markers with the ambitions to do more, because I know that that, particularly on on salaries, that was very hard for small businesses because they were so anxious about the future, so we've had to do a lot of reassurance in that piece as well but I do hope you're gonna be signed up and will join that happy band of businesses as we go forward Councillor scullion,

thank you, and thank you for that elucidation. There absolutely agree in terms of the reframing of the tone of this paper, I would take issue with Councillor Lamb. I don't think we want language about compliance and non-compliance, actually, the way in which this is framed is very much about that journey, and I know that most of the businesses in Calderdale are SMEs with a lot of startups. This is about improvement and aspiration. Let's leave the language about compliance and non-compliance out of it entirely. I think what, because of the trap you can fall into, is that you end up with all the big businesses that are doing everything right being quite happy to be. You know, we can. We can sign all these box tick all these boxes and then you end up with just a small cohort of people and you don't change

the landscape with this is for us to change the landscape, where we can make sure that we support businesses to do the right thing for the workforce and for themselves, because you'll know as somebody who runs a business, the more progressive you are, you have better retention you're more attractive to people when it comes to recruitment at your MO more able to withstand economic shocks, etc etc so I'm hoping that.

SMEs across West Yorkshire will feel that they want to be part of this family to do the right thing and we will help them on that journey.

any further thoughts, thank you.

OK, so I did assume everybody was behind it and I was too previous and I missed out your questions, so apologies on that, so are we we did get the endorsement and approval of the Charter to proceed to launch, we have the approval there are we happy for the combined authority to become an early signatory to the charter?

yes, lovely, thank you, and Ben is going to take away that ask about coming back with a or a lie of the land of where we are now and where we'd like to aspire to going forward.

watchdog so moving on to another exciting item on the agenda, mass transit vision, 2040 adoption, this has been amended following the outcome of the statutory consultation process and if approved today, it's going to be adopted as a supplementary document to Local Transport Plan.

I mentioned earlier about the prime minister's Network, North plan, which included annoyingly promised money for money for Leeds tram, how many times have we had to say this is not a Leeds from this as a West Yorkshire mass transit because it will connect towns and cities across our region and form part of a multi-modal transport network including bus rail, active travel and mass transit, this is not just about Leeds, this is about all of us.

secondly, while I do welcome the funding promised by the prime minister, it is only a promise. The details suggested we would receive 500 million as a downpayment in 2027, with a further 2 billion coming in 2032 and beyond. I've made it very clear to government ministers. Our plans are much more ambitious than that and we are working to a timeline where a much larger sum of money is released to us in 2027 than is currently being suggested. Work is progressing at pace and we cannot afford to slack and that pays. I am not intent on delivering this as soon as possible, so now can I pass to Councillor Hinchcliffe as Chair of the Transport Committee and then I'll move on to Simon our executive director of transport for further comment. Susan yeah really pleased to see this paper on the agenda this morning and at the adoption phase. It's really positive news, as mass transit is transformational for our region and remediate for so many years, and this is obviously the latest step to achieve in that. It is a long-term project, is not something that can be delivered tomorrow, so obviously, but this is a huge transmission stuff precisely the reason we got mayoral devolution in the first place and I'm just really pleased to see this progress. The next stage of cycling.

thank you, and I'll I'll just very briefly adds with facts through Lukasz t, that we've now run constantly to waves of consultation on the vision where we were very confident that the vision now reflects the priorities of the Combined Authority and,

all of those who have taken part in our consultation and, of course, it's incredibly important when we're on.

such a significant journey as the mass transit programme, that were very clear in terms of our priorities for the outset, and that's why I recommend the adoption of provision today, so that we have that clear statement to build on going forward.

thank you any kinds of thoughts questions, yes, catapults.

yeah, it was just on the statutory consultees, listen to be quite difficult to get them all to respond now looks at 100% response rate, I'm obviously went out again to try and get some more and how many were actually who haven't responded at all, do we have now and what can we learn about this engagement going forward because we will have to engage with statutory consultees throughout this process, what can we learn?

I would say that it's very, very fair question, so I think we're confident now with wow we've set out a number of important comments that we received in particular that we'd been exhaustive in our efforts to draw in comments from statutory consultees, they are of course statutory consultation and it is,

it it is at their choice.

to take part

in the consultation.

I think we have captured by far the vast majority of those consultation and work very hard to promote the consultation, of course, if we look at the first round of consultation, the volume of public response that we secured, I think, is testament to that or and therefore I'm confident that those consultees with material views,

on the vision have had a very good opportunity to give you those views and that we've summarised those accurately matter, please Luke.

a very fair question from the Council. Thank you, Councillor yeah. We made a woman in extreme efforts with the statutory consultees. Many of the ones who decided not to respond did so with with the explanation why they were not responding because they didn't think it was appropriate to respond, it wasn't directly relevant to them and so forth, so it wasn't just a question of aspiring things out to them and then nothing coming back, so there were there were there was a fairly good picture, one of the things we've taken away from it is perhaps the list of statutory consultees needs to be worked on a bit, so we match it more closely to what this is really all about.

thank you any further comments Sue, but can we agree the recommendation for the CA to consider the draft mass transit vision 2040 as amended following the outcome of statutory consultation process, and to adopt it as a supplementary document to the Local Transport Plan we can all agree that is such great news. Thank you all so much moving on to mass transit approach to place-making and design philosophy. So this item is about how the system will work within the places is designed to connect. This is central to planning an effective and efficient transport system, and mass transit is absolutely about people and places, and the starting point must be

really on understanding how mass transit will integrate with our communities and act as a stimulus for regeneration and development of lovely communities and places to live, as you would expect, the place-making approach seeks to ensure safety and also inclusion is at the heart of the design. By putting people first and at the centre of our decisions. This means streets and public realm and well-defined that they're welcoming safe, inclusive and, of course, accessible to all. These documents have been developed in consultation with officers from all five local authorities, and we're committed to continuing to work in partnership with all to deliver the project. Could I now pass on to Councillor Hinchcliffe before handing over to Simon for further comment

thank you there, yes, really obviously welcome this document. I think it just highlights, as you just said, then that transport is not just about getting A to B and J time. Passenger numbers is about what it does to the place where the station is where the stop is in, and it is transformational for those places, and that it encourages economic activity. New housing to be built on brownfield, land round stations, round transport hubs or and and this document just strengthens that and I think because it's it we'd evolved, we can spend the time we know our communities to be able to outline this kind of document. It's something that couldn't be done at national level because I just do not know our place as much, but they'd be well advised to look at transport as part of regeneration rather than just seeing it as getting people from there to base. It was a bit of a upon bugbear of mine, so there's been a lot of depth and a breadth gone into this document. In terms of research.

working with local authorities to to get the the right tone and the right feel for our places and and linking in with our local plans what we all want to see, so hopefully this brings it altogether and really will be a useful document for us to build and attract investment going forward and the handover to Simon T Stowe or I I think, as I think you've said most of it really the the central point is that the mass transit investment programme is a very long-term investment in the fabric of our places and we recognise that and we want to be absolutely clear from the outset.

that we have that clear understanding and that would very much drive our our work, so we've set out.

within the place-making approach for design principles.

people First, very, very sensitive and understanding of both the diversity of the user community that we want to be able to attract onto a future system, but also the diversity of of the neighbourhoods that we will be serving and I'm planning a system through and that we have the very highest environmental standards and take our envelop environmental responsibilities very seriously and very clearly that our approach is driven by the integrated transport purchase that you referred to before May and add and we drive that principle of a better connected place.

and the fundamentally we, we celebrate West Yorkshire through the approach that the that we take, we know that these levels of investment can drive up pride in our places and we want to be able to capitalise that on that to the fore as,

Councillor Hinchcliffe quite rightly pointed out, that means that we have done extensive work with our range of teams in the five authorities to make sure that we reflect the de the diversity and we will continue to work with those teams going forwards are, and I think the final per pointed out I would stress is that all of those five principles will continue to also be true driven by our desire to maximise the safety,

of users, not simply what's travelling on the future system, but as they travelled term from the the the future system, so that again we can ensure that nobody feels excluded from the opportunities ahead of us. So I recommend

that the adoption of the practice that that is set out here.

and then a request that we bring a further more detailed design guide forwards in due course, which we will work on closely with local authority and partners, so that we then have all of the right principles at all levels of granularity are in place before.

we start to move to engagement with communities and on our proposals

thank you so much, and if I could just add, if people are minded to have a look at Manchester's mass transit, you can see how that has unlocked over the years, new communities and new developments, and on our trip to Dublin it was extraordinary to see how mass transit that went into a wasteland.

in the first instances has now been developed into the most extraordinary sort of boutique hotel restaurants and a lovely apartments are alongside that must transit routes, so I am really hopeful and excited about the opportunities that mass transit is going to give all of our partners but also been able to,

be there right at the beginning to make sure that inclusion is a priority, you'll know that we did the research on safer parks that women's safety is often an afterthought we are in a really privileged position that we can put all our values right at the beginning of the design of this mass transit that is going to be the the most efficient the most inclusive, the most attractive.

hopefully in Europe, and no pressure on anyone.

but I am very excited about the approach to place-making, I think it's really important Jane Councillor Scully, thank you, I noticed the officers turning a little pale when you were talking to bow to pressure to be best in Europe so.

obviously, because this report came to the climate committee and what was interesting was people found it rather startling in a refreshing certain way, not in a negative way, because this was a report that was about that, that combination of transport and place really and I have to say the committee were very, very positive about it really in terms of the overall approach to think he broke place rather than just big sheds for transport begins and ends but actually thinking about,

not only structures but how people use their place really, and I'm pleased to say that historic England were particularly enthusiastic about this approach in terms of going forward for many years in terms of thinking about mass transit and how we use our places we need so very positive from the climate committee.

thank you for that feedback, that's really good to hear any further comments.

right, OK, let's go through to the recommendations.

that we approve the proposal to adopt the approach to place-making design philosophy as a tool for influencing the mass transit route, development activity and stimulating wider place-based opportunities. I'm happy to approve lovely thank you and that we note the attention to prepare an updated design guide prior to the commencement of the next stage of route design, the feasibility design, and this will be presented to the Combined Authority for approval in due course. Super. Thank you. Moving on to Item 8 investment priority, 3, creating great places and accelerated infrastructure

this is about our housing accelerator fund programme, a 3.2 million pound programme to fast track housing projects across the region because in this region we are builders, not blockers, and the funding will help support the progress of sites across West Yorkshire, including Bradford City, village, Castleford, Housing Zone, Dewsbury, Riverside, Brickhouse and Leeds City Centre. It'll go some way to help achieving my manifesto commitment, unaffordable housing, which we remain absolutely focused on. Despite the challenging economic environment, we began my term at the tail end of the pandemic and have been deeply affected by skyrocketing inflation caused by the government's disastrous budget just over a year ago, but its funding like this. That's helping to bring sites forward and ensure that housing still keeps being developed

so we developed and I'm really pleased to be one of only three in the country, a strategic partnership with homes, England to further progress, the housing delivery but still frustrating that we have to compete with other regions to secure their funding, so I'm making the case to government we should have an allocation from their affordable, affordable homes programme just for us here in West Yorkshire and that it it should be devolved. A similar idea was announced by the Labour party in Liverpool earlier this week for more detail on this and the delegation containing the paper to the climate, energy and environment committee can I pass to Councillor Jeffery before handing over to Liz Hunter, our director of policing environment and place so Denise.

thank you very much, Tracy Ma, I think you've covered so much of it, but the place the Place Board have really shaped this as we are working with liaison officers, we really were determined to move forward with it matters so much to everyone and, as I say you've you've covered, what we were doing, but the committee was so impassioned about moving forward the private sector that we're on and our committee fully endorsed what we were doing and I think this is a great way forward and the Committee wanted to bring it here and so that we could endorse and support it. Thank you. And of course it is urgent because we do need to continue and re ratchet up these projects. Liz

thank you very much, so just to provide the the the layer of detail in terms of what's being asked for today. So the total value of the scheme is 3.2 million, as you said Ma, and this really is about the early stages of the work needed to bring forward housing sites, working with your each of the local authorities in their sights and, as you will also mentioned, there are really important partnership with homes, England through the Strategic Place Partnership, and this money will be very much focused on those areas that you, as a Combined Authority approved earlier this year. In terms of this priority areas with with homes England, sorry, we're looking today for you to approve the totality of that money so that we can continue to work on the projects coming forward. The second ask in the paper is that on the net region, net 0 sorry Net Zero regional accelerator fund, this is a fund that is already in place

and it funds things like Fee again, feasibility, so early stage, work on schemes like solar solar schemes, energy from waste, etc so what we're looking for today is that the team are still working on on this proposal and it's going through our assurance and we'd like it to be duly delegated to climate committee chaired by Councillor Scully and for the climate committee to to look at that and scrutinise it and make the decision as to whether to allocate additional funding to that programme to enable more schemes to come forward at

through that programme, so to two things, to be delegated sorry to approvals one housing accelerator fund, and then the second one to be delegated to climate committee. Thank you any comments on these suggestions, if I might add that one of the challenges is planners we can't find people being attracted to planning, so I've ask the team to look at how we can use some of our adult education budget to try and focus on recruiting planners in the way that we did with bus drivers and telecoms engineers

so potentially we can. We can try and solve some of this problem and make planning an attractive option for young people in West Yorkshire, no comments, so let's go to the approval. So the housing accelerator fund. This is a single scheme asking for delegation from the combined authority to the climate, energy and environment committee. Are we happy to approve thank you and the Net Zero region accelerator

where or approving to progress through the assurance process, with full approvals for the client authority's funding contribution of delivery delegation to the Chief Executive to determine the projects within an approval for future assurance pathways and approval routes and the detailed recommendations as set out in the report were happy to approve the net 0 item. Thank you moving on everybody's happy with that,

sorry, just to be really clear. It's just the way round. So delegation to the Net Zero accelerated the climate committee and approval for the housing revenue fund today, so it's basically, as he said, we'll just see the way round if that's all right, just for clarity for the minute OK, thank you so much, let's do that again, it's actually written the wrong way round in my papers, so thank you we're happy to approve the money, the 3 million pounds great, and we're happy to delegate and at 0to the committee great stuff. Thank you. Thank you for that clarity line, OK moving onto budget and funding, so I'm pleased to bring this paper forward and support our local authorities. At a time of extreme financial pressure we are proposing refunding 51.1 4 8 million from our West Yorkshire Plus Transport Fund reserve to our five local authorities. We remain committed to delivering the 1 billion pounds Transport Fund in full over the coming years. Can I pass over to Angela Taylor to provide further information? Thank you, Angela

thank you, Mayor, as you say that the paper sets out a reminder of our reserves position and identifies that there is a proposal to rebase, in effect our current reserve and refund 51 million pounds to the five local authorities say in these times of extreme financial pressure,

I don't need to dwell on that, it's a very real issue that that you are all dealing with.

as we speak.

the reserve is there to meet our commitment to the local contribution to the West Yorkshire Plus Transport Fund, which was part of the original City Deal in 2014.

and if you approved the refund today, then we will continue to put future top sizes of the transport levy into the reserve to to build it back up again so that we can meet the commitment.

as we continue to deliver the Transport Fund in full over the coming years and recommendations set out Section 10 happy to take any questions, thank you.

thank you, this is not a position we wanted to find ourselves in.

but has been forced upon us by.

the underfunding of local authorities over the last decade, any comments or questions.

no, thank you so much for the recommendations are that the Combined Authority considers the current financial position and that the Combined Authority approves the refund of transport levy reserves to the constituent local authorities, as set out in paragraph 2.10 of this report, are we happy to?

have those recommendations go through, thank you, thank you so much, okay, item 10 Budget and business Planning.

this report provides an update to members on the new multi year business planning approach adopted for 24 25 business planning period. You'll remember this really successful launch of the West Yorkshire Plan in June this year a multi year planning process has been implemented for the next business planning cycle to support setting out our role in contributing to the plans five missions. This report sets out the approach that's been taken for Members to note and Angela, can you talk us through any further detail and answer any questions? Thank you

thank you. There are, as you say this, this Bill from the West Yorkshire Plan. It is very much about setting outcomes on a multi year basis and we have previously been a bit more bottom up in some of our of outcome setting and done it on a shorter term. So this is trying to refine down and the approach the outcomes that we want to achieve. So we are currently working up the detailed outputs and activities that will come back to these meetings and finance resources and Corporate Committee over the next few months as we progress through towards a business plan and budget for you to approve in February happy to take any questions. Thank you. Thank you. As long as the plan is not just for the shelf to gather dust as it is, it's a blueprint for how we deliver for 2040 any comments

yes, Councillor, Scully.

thank you Treacy just a coverage and observation really in terms of the graphics that's in the report, it couldn't decide whether it was a very frightening sort of gymnastic horsebox or actually a very solid structure. It's a house, it's actually a very solid structure, it's a house and I just wanted to say that I hope, as we go forward with these plans and review the outcomes, that actually this is a solid, as this part, as Dr Graham looks ready with the six of us, the five local authorities and yourself going together and earlier you put pressure on the officers by saying you know best in Europe, mass transit plan and so on, and the pressure is on us actually to be the best combined authority that we can be in these difficult times.

thank you, and I couldn't agree with that more, that we will deliver together and it is the, it is the strength of our partnership that is unique, I think, in a Combined Authority that we can understand and work very closely with each other to deliver on our shared ambitions.

for our partnership, so I'm really pleased with this work and thank you for that comment, Jane any further comments, no, I were happy to note the approach that's implemented for the next busy business planning meeting. Thank you so much moving on to committee governance. This is to consider appointments to committees of the Combined Authority if I could hand over to Caroline Alan to talk us through this,

thank you Chair, and the report is hopefully self-explanatory on this basics in relation to committee membership, the first proposal here is to appoint an advisory, non-voting rep of the NHS West Yorkshire integrated care board, onto the climate, energy and environment committee that proposal has come forward as a request by the Committee itself.

and we all we all already have an equivalent rep on our place committee, and the climate committee has felt that actually, having that that broadened input from from that health perspective is really critical there, so the recommendation is is for a non.

for an advisory rep to be appointed to that committee, should we take her any questions or comments on that before we move on any comments on that I do think getting closer to health is going to help us with our health inequality outcomes.

and I'm very excited about Wiasak as well that we launched a few weeks ago, we can't solve the problems of West Yorkshire without including health, so I'm really pleased in this development we're happy to recommend and approve yeah, thank you Caroline, OK, thank you. The second one is in relation to the membership of the finance resources and corporate committee and the proposal here is to seek an additional independent member to that committee to

bring experience and expertise in matters of corporate and financial performance and controls and to provide a valuable check and challenge and input and perspective to the the the work of that Committee. So put, the were seeking the approval of the CA to go forward and to re seek to recruit to that, and we are looking we are proposing here a level of remuneration which is equivalent, that for our independent members and our governance and audit committee, so the recommendation here is that remuneration be set at 1,000 pounds a year which is equivalent to a rate of 250 pounds a day for four days' work

thank you, and I am proud here in West Yorkshire, that we are open to scrutiny with our three scrutiny boards and I do believe that somebody with the appropriate experience will help us have further scrutiny on this on this committee, are we happy to approve that we go out to recruitment, thank you Caroline, thank you and third and final one is Calderdale have proposed.

into nomination for the economy Scrutiny Committee and to replace Councillor John Ford on that committee with Councillor Peter Caffrey, thank you, thank you, and we're happy to approve that change, thank you somewhat.

that draws the meeting to an end, we've rattled through substantive business, thank you so much for your questions and for your challenge, and I'd like to thank everybody for attending today and reminder of the next meeting, 7th December 2023, and I'll formally close the meeting, thank you all so much.