Issue - meetings

To consider report of the Chief Executive.

The Leader Councillor B Toomey referred the Council to ‘The City Deal’ report and advised that since the preparation of the report certain events had moved on and consequently the timelines set out in the report were inaccurate.

The Leader also reminded the Council that even if the Deal is agreed by both Governments, as Leader of the Council he would be authorised to sign the formal City Deal Offer Document only on the basis that it does not commit the Council until the detailed proposals are negotiated and agreed by the constituent Authorities.

The Leader further advised that on Monday this week the core negotiating team consisting of Councillor Phil Bale Leader of Cardiff, Councillor Andrew Morgan, Leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf and Councillor Peter Fox Leader of Monmouthshire presented the final business case to the other Leaders of the South East Wales Region and the Leaders signed off the Document and the negotiating team formally presented to the Welsh Government Challenge Session on Monday afternoon.

The Leader then referred to Paragraph 3.4 of the report where the core negotiating team is referred to as being made up of the three Council Leaders plus a senior member of the Business and Higher Education Sectors, but advised that last Monday the Westminster Government rejected this so the team consisted of just the three Leaders.

On Tuesday 23 February 2016 the Core Negotiating Team met with the Secretary of State for Wales and other Central Government figures in London to present our case in the second Challenge Session.

The formal outcome of both Challenge Sessions is not yet available, however, in the event of a successful outcome the formal signing of the City Deal should take place within the next two weeks or so.

In the event of a successful Deal, only then when each constituent Authority is in full agreement with the proposals will we be asked to sign the formal Deal Document which will then become binding and this could take between six and eighteen months.

The Leader also advised that there were no additional financial implications at this time although a further report to Council will be presented in due course in order to finance a dedicated Project Team to take the Deal forward.

Resolved that:

(a)  The contents and updates of the report be noted

(b)  In the event that the Deal is agreed by the UK Government and the Welsh Government at the outcome of the Challenge Sessions, the Leader of the Council be authorised to sign the formal ‘City Deal’ offer document on the basis that it does not commit the Council until such time as the detailed proposals are negotiated and agreed between the constituent Authorities.