Issue - meetings

Presentation and discussion with West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) in attendance.

Contact:

Angela Blake, Service Director, Economy and Skills and Nick Howe, Corporate Policy Officer, Tel: 01484 221000

The Committee received a presentation from Ben Still, Managing Director and Dave Pearson, Director of Transport Services at West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) in relation to partnership working and the benefits delivered for the district.

The presentation outlined:-

-        Political membership and the Leadership Team

-        Kirklees’ role

-        The four key priorities, namely (i) boosting productivity; (ii) enabling inclusive growth; (iii) delivering 21^st century transport; and (iv) tackling the climate emergency

-        Kirklees’ Levy Contribution

-        Delivery in Kirklees

-        Inclusive Growth

-        Tackling the Climate Emergency

-        Key Kirklees Priorities 2020-21

The key areas of the Committee’s discussion and responses to questions are summarised below:

-        It was noted that Kirklees had a high level of engagement and involvement within the WYCA and had representatives on a number of boards and committees. This included Councillor Shabir Pandor, Leader of the Council, who was the Chair of the Inclusive Growth and Public Policy Panel and Councillor Manisha Kaushik who was the Deputy Chair of the Transport Committee.

-        Kirklees made a transport levy contribution of £19.8m, which included £9m to fund free travel for older and disabled people, which was a national scheme now paid for by local authorities, and £4 m to commission social necessary buses and AccessBus services.

-        The Committee noted the funds from central government allocated through the Growth Deal for each district and how this was spread over specific priorities within Kirklees.  These priorities included Growing Business, Skills Capital and Clean Energy.  It was noted that the Growth Deal funding mechanism was due to end in March 2021.

-        In partnership with the Council, 1038 grants had been offered to support local businesses, totalling £8.3m.  Websites and social channels were used to spread the message that this funding was available.  There were also Business Advisors working within the local authorities, business representative groups and pop up cafes.  A watching brief was kept on the distribution of spend in order to identify any potential gaps and encourage take up where required.

With regards to raising ward member awareness of the grants available and signposting opportunities, the Committee were informed that a members’ newsletter tailored to each local authority was distributed via email on a monthly basis.

-        In July 2019, WYCA set a zero emissions target of 2038 and work was ongoing to fully understand what the pathway to achieving that target across the City Region would look like.  It was anticipated that this would be available for sharing in March/April 2020.

WYCA were also involved in work that was ongoing nationally as to how best to appraise the climate impacts of specific programmes and apply that method to current programmes.  This would give an indication on the carbon footprint of each of the each of the projects and programmes within the authority’s portfolio.

-        It was acknowledged that there were challenges in that each local authority region had slightly different approaches to air quality management areas and were at different stages  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54