Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence of Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillor Andrew Cooper.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 4 November 2019.

The minutes of the Committee meeting held on 4 November 2020 were agreed as a correct record.

The Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have disclosable pecuniary interests, which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items, or any other interests.

No interests were declared.

Most debates take place in public. This only changes when there is a need to consider certain issues, for instance, commercially sensitive information or details concerning an individual. You will be told at this point whether there are any items on the Agenda which are to be discussed in private.

All items were considered in public session.

The Committee will receive any petitions and hear any deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also hand in a petition at the meeting but that petition should relate to something on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 (2), Members of the Public should provide at least 24 hours’ notice of presenting a deputation.

No deputations or petitions were received.

The meeting will hear any questions from the general public.

There were no public questions received.

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.

To receive an update in relation to the review of the Cohesion Strategy.

Contact: 

Carol Gilchrist, Head of Communities and Ali Amla, Cohesion and Integration Manager, Tel: 01484 221000

The Committee received a report which provided an update on the development of the Cohesion Strategy, focusing on findings from analysis of the 50 focus groups held to inform the vision and strategy.

Carol Gilchrist, Head of Communities and Ali Amla, Cohesion and Integration Manager were in attendance for the item.

The Panel were advised that the Cohesion Strategy had been developed with co-production principles at its foundation.  The next stage of development was a partnership event in January to which all councillors had been invited.  This would enable the drafting of the vision and strategy which would go out to further consultation before formal adoption. 

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

-        With regards to whether communities across the whole of Kirklees had been consulted, the Panel were advised that focus groups had been varied and a place based approach had been taken throughout the process.  All local areas had been covered including Huddersfield, Mirfield, Batley and Spen and rural communities.  It was acknowledged that there were some gaps within the engagement, but it was believed that there was a fairly representative voice at this point to create a broader vision and strategy and gaps that had been identified would be addressed through local planning and development.

-        The Committee referred to the findings of the Casey Review of 2016 which highlighted the need to bring communities together and asked what work was being undertaken to build on previous work around cohesion as well as current working practices.  In response, it was noted that the Casey Review was a national review and the policy never came to light through government. The Cohesion Strategy review was more localised and would tie in with current Council policies around place based working. 

Since 2016 the offer within the Cohesion Team had changed in that they were now a smaller team comprised of 6 officers.  Some of the work being translated through the Strategy was that work should not just be led by officers and elected members, with an asset based approach being taken to developing cohesion. 

-        With regards to research, it was planned to triangulate and integrate communities work and consult across the Council, which was a data rich organisation.  More in Common were currently doing a piece of research across Batley and Spen and it had been intended to align with this work, but unfortunately there had been delays due to the general election.  Reference was also made to new academic research emerging in the field of cohesion and integration.

-        The new vision would be aligned to the Council’s commitment to Intercultural Cities with the incorporation of key recommendations to complement existing action plans.  It was clarified that Intercultural Cities was working broadly across the Council and cohesion was one aspect.  It was agreed that the report would be shared with the Committee.

-        It was important to create a shared vision with communities and partners and review the whole council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

The Lead Members of the 4 scrutiny panels will provide an update on the recent work of their panels. 

Contact:  Carol Tague, Democracy Manager (Governance & Democratic Engagement), Tel: 01484 221000

The Management Committee considered update reports from the four Scrutiny Panel Lead Members on the recent work of their panels.

Resolved: The Committee noted the Lead Member update reports on the work of scrutiny panels. 

To note that the next scheduled meeting of the Committee will be held on Monday 9 March 2020 at 2.00 pm in Huddersfield Town Hall.

Resolved:

1.    It was noted that the next scheduled meeting would be held on 9 March 2020 at 1400; and

2.    Agreed that an additional meeting be scheduled at the beginning of March to consider the report of the Ad Hoc Scrutiny Panel (Future Arrangements for the Council’s Residential Housing Stock), prior to it being submitted to Cabinet.