Agenda item

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 of setting a of clean air zone.

With regards to clean air zones, the Committee were advised that the Euro 6 diesel engine specification was the minimum compliant in terms of vehicle emissions and produced significantly less emissions than those from older buses.  Alongside the requirement for clean air zones, the Government also ran some schemes which enabled the retrofitting of older and mid-life buses to reach the Euro 6 standards.  The Panel noted that WYCA had been successful in obtaining monies to retrofit vehicles and that funding had been applied via a prioritised approach as per the conditions of government funding. 

The bus fleet across West Yorkshire was partially compliant with clean air zone Euro 6 standards.  Further retrofitting and work with bus operators and government funding was required to bring all buses to that standard.  In terms of standards required by WYCA, notice was given to the bus industry a couple of years ago that by 2020, they would only want to commission Euro 6 engine vehicles and were working towards Euro 6 being the default standard in order to deal with the worst effects of emission.  It was important to be mindful that if too high a standard of vehicle was required then this might have the consequence of reduced bus services in areas where they were most needed, particularly given that the investment required was a challenge for smaller bus operators.

-        The introduction of electric buses was at an early stage and it was acknowledged that the range and terrain of some journeys within the region made this was challenging.

-        With regards to rail travel, Government decisions were expected in 2020 in relation to improvements to the Huddersfield/Leeds/York route and arguments would continue to be made to improve the trans-Pennine corridor and extend to Manchester.

It was acknowledged that the reality was that almost every corridor needed improvement and whilst there was a need to improve the Huddersfield to Penistone line it was not currently at the top of the list of priorities.

-        Whilst the region did not have an oyster card system, it did operate a well established multi modal operational scheme via the M Card.  There had been an aspiration to have a system based on a bank card and mobile phone as an identification token, but this had been outpaced by technological developments and that project was currently in a pause position and talks were ongoing with Transport for the North as to how the M Card could be further developed as part of a localised solution. 

The complex structure of rail fares was acknowledged and it was noted that as part of the Williams’ review of rail, a review had started to look the at the fare structure of railways across the whole country and the development of an equitable system across the length of the journey.

-        Work in relation to inclusive growth was in its early stages, in that the scale of the problem was understood and efforts had gone into developing a strategy that aimed to align with local authorities’ own work on inclusive growth.

-        Confirmation as to whether it was community groups or businesses who could apply for the Rural Communities Energy Fund would be provided further to the meeting.

-        Work led by the 5 authority leaders was ongoing to secure a devolution deal and there were positive signs that this might be concluded over the course of the year.

-        A major funding bid had been submitted to Government called Transforming Cities, which was a corridor based programme that had been developed in partnership with the local authorities with a focus on linking actual travel demand for communities.  The total value of the programme across the city region was between £250m - £500m and it was hoped to hear the outcome of the bid by Spring 2020.

-        With regards to skills, there was an ask to devolve powers and funding in order to reshape and re-structure local skills provision to meet future demand.  It was noted that every LEP area had an Employment Advisory Panel.

-        In relation to transparency, the Committee were advised that the WYCA were established in statute and its’ processes mirrored how the local authority conducted business.  However, it was acknowledged that the WYCA did not have the same direct relationship with communities and that did present challenges in communicating work and decision making.

Local Enterprise Partnerships were separate in terms of their treatment by Government.  Government had introduced some new information regarding improving LEP’s transparency but this was already in place at a WYCA level as the LEP mirrored the transparency and accountability.

-        Decisions were made through 3 Boards, namely the Combined Authority as the core decision making board, the Transport Committee which had delegation from the Combined Authority; and the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).  Other decisions were delegated through officers and recorded in line with those taken by local authorities.  It was noted that a potential area for confusion for the public was where the Combined Authority funded a project that was sponsored by a local authority who were ultimately the decision maker and scheme sponsor. 

-        The Combined Authority meeting was webcast and members of the public could attend but not ask questions.  The Transport Committee was not currently webcast due to accommodation issues.  There were also district consultation sub-committees, which were locally based meetings specifically around transport issues, which were an open forum.  It was acknowledged that wider promotion of these meetings was important.

-        With regards to engagement across West Yorkshire, the Committee raised that pavements and roads etc did not stop at Council boundaries and it was important that there was a mechanism to ensure consultation across region.

In response, it was accepted that this was an area to improve with local authority partners.  It was noted that some combined authorities had taken a more strategic view and managed more centrally than the WYCA had chosen to do.  It was acknowledged that WYCA may have gone too far in the other direction and a joining up mechanism had not been in place early enough in the process to ensure that the whole picture was in view and the Committee were advised that lessons had been learned.

-        The changing environment in relation to bus operators was highlighted and it was noted that the bus market in West Yorkshire had lost over a million bus trips per year.  This was at a time when public transport would need to play a key role in the reduction of the carbon footprint and allowing fully inclusive growth, and the reconciliation of this would be a real challenge.  It was important to support bus operators in taking a wider view of profitability and to face the challenge of decline when services where needed most.

The Panel also noted that a close watching brief would be kept on events in Manchester, which as a mayoral zone had taken the first steps to a franchising option.

Resolved: The Committee noted the information presented and thanked Ben Still and Dave Pearson for their attendance.