MINUTES of MEETING of the STIRLING AND CLACKMANNANSHIRE CITY REGION
DEAL JOINT COMMITTEE held via MS Teams on 6 July 2021 at 2.30 pm Present
Councillor Donald Balsillie (Substitute) Councillor Martha Benny
Councillor Neil Benny Councillor Kenneth Earle
Councillor Scott Farmer (In the Chair) Councillor Danny Gibson (Substitute) Mr Mike Mulraney
In Attendance
Jim Boyle, Chief Officer – Finance, Stirling Council
Nikki Bridle, Chief Executive, Clackmannanshire Council
Fiona Colligan, Head of Regional Programme Management Office, University of Stirling Martin Dalziel, Team Leader, External Communications, Stirling Council
Graeme Forrester, Lead Solicitor – Governance, Stirling Council
David Hopper, Public Transport and Sustainable Development Manager Pete Leonard, Strategic Director (Place), Clackmannanshire Council Bruce McClure, City Region Deal Programme Manager, Stirling Council Brian Roberts, Chief Operating Officer, Stirling Council
Dr John Rogers, Executive Director, Research & Innovation Services, University of Stirling Lindsay Sim, Chief Finance Officer, Clackmannanshire Council
Lindsay Thomson, Senior Manager, Legal and Governance, Clackmannanshire Council Mary Love, Committee Officer, Stirling Council (minutes)
CRD108 APOLOGIES AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor Ellen Forson (Clackmannanshire Council), Eileen Schofield (University of Stirling Representative), Councillor Chris Kane (Stirling Council) and Carol Beattie, Chief Executive, Stirling Council.
Councillor Donald Balsillie (Clackmannanshire Council) was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Forson and Councillor Danny Gibson (Stirling Council) was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Kane.
CRD109 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
None.
CRD110 URGENT BUSINESS
None.
CRD111 MINUTES – JOINT COMMITTEE MEETING 8 JUNE 2021
The minutes of the meeting of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal Joint Committee held on 8 June 2021 were submitted for approval.
Decision
The minutes of the meeting of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal Joint Committee held on 8 June 2021 were agreed as a correct record.
CRD112 FORWARD PLANNING
- JOINT COMMITTEE ROLLING ACTION LOG
The Joint Committee Rolling Action Log was submitted for information. The log had been reviewed and updated to remove completed actions and provided comment on outstanding actions.
Decision
The Joint Committee agreed to note the content of the Rolling Action Log.
(b) JOINT COMMITTEE FORWARD PLAN
A list of items on the Joint Committee Forward Plan was submitted for information.
Decision
The Joint Committee agreed to note the items on the Joint Committee Forward Plan.
CRD113 PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD
Following the agreement at Joint Committee 5 February 2021 that the Deal would move into Delivery with the issue of the Grant Offer Letter for FY 2021/22, Joint Committee would receive a quarterly Dashboard report.
The report had been provided to enable Joint Committee to familiarise themselves with the updated format of the Dashboard and report as part of a wider single report to act as a single point of truth regarding the CRD. Dashboards would be provided to Joint Committee in meetings held in April, July, October and January each year.
In this update, the overall status was assigned as ‘Amber’. There were no actions required from the Joint Committee.
The City Region Deal Programme Manager introduced the report and responded to a number of questions from Members. Considerable effort had been made to update the performance dashboard as per the action point, removing any three letter acronyms. The report would be presented to the Chief Officers Group (COGs) and was noted to be up to date.
Discussion took place regarding the Regional Economic Forum (REF) and Stirling and Clackmannanshire Regional Economic Advisory Board (SCREAB). Scheduled meetings had been cancelled due to annual leave and were due to take place the following week, with matters being agreed at the next COGs meeting, with a view of being concluded within the target date of August. Individuals for the two groupings had yet to be identified, however, agencies had been agreed to be part of the recruitment process, with discussions to take place to identify if there were any areas that required a selection process.
It was agreed that Members would be provided with an update on any issues raised within the cycle of committees.
It was also agreed that a report detailing updates from the Chief Officers Group (COGs) meetings with regard to recruitment and business engagement would be presented to a future meeting of the CRD Joint Committee, which would be in line with the forward plan.
Decision
The Joint Committee agreed to note the progress across the City Region Deal programme as laid out in Appendix 1 to the submitted report.
CRD114TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE CHIEF FINANCE OFFICERS GROUP
The Chief Officers’ Group (COGs) was established as a body within the City Region Deal Governance Framework, following approval at Joint Committee in September 2019, and the Terms of Reference were approved in draft at that meeting. A key advisory group to the COGs is the Chief Finance Officers Group, and the Chief Finance Officers of the three partner organisations had up until this point regularly advised the COGs in relation to the financial matters associated with the overall Deal.
Following consultation with COGs, the revised Terms of reference for the Chief Finance Officers Group for approval by Joint Committee were provided in Appendix 1 to the submitted report.
Decision
The Joint Committee agreed to approve the recommended Chief Finance Officers Group Terms of Reference in Appendix 1 to the submitted report.
CRD115 BUSINESS CASE FOR APPROVAL: WALK, CYCLE, LIVE STIRLING OBC
Walk, Cycle, Live Stirling was a lead project within the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal Active Travel portfolio. The Outline Business Case for the project had been endorsed by the Scottish Government and was presented in this report for approval by the COGs, and subsequently the Joint Committee. Following approval of the Outline Business Case, the project would proceed to Full Business Case, with construction scheduled for delivery from October 2021.
An in depth discussion took place around the routes and the costings for this project and the Public Transport and Sustainable Development Manager provided an overview of the proposed work to be carried out within the Outline Business Case. Following a Member’s question regarding improvements on Albert Place in Stirling, it was confirmed that this would be made into a shared place but would have no impact on proposals to the Viewforth Link Road.
It was noted that the relevant appendices had not been attached to the report when submitted for circulation, therefore Members agreed that appendices A – Q of the Stirling Council Outline Business Case would be emailed to Members.
It was also agreed that route plans and street layouts for cycle routes would be emailed to Members.
Decision
The Joint Committee agreed to:
- approve the outline Business Case for Walk, Cycle, Live Stirling; and
- note that, following approval, the project would proceed to Full Business Case development
The Chair declared the meeting closed at 3.15pm