Agenda for MCA - Transport and the Environment Board on Thursday, 27th October, 2022, 10.00 am

Agenda and minutes

Venue: 11 Broad Street West, Sheffield, S1 2BQ

Items
No. Item

39.

Welcome and Apologies

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting.

 

Apologies were noted as above.

40.

Declarations of Interest by Individual Members in Relation to any Item of Business on the Agenda.

Minutes:

Members declared interests in projects relating to their Local Authority areas.

41.

Urgent Items / Announcements

Minutes:

None.

42.

Public Questions of Key Decisions

Minutes:

The following questions of Key Decisions had been received from a member of the public, with regard to the Sheaf Valley Active Travel Lane:

 

1.   Has the full funding been awarded to Sheffield City Council?

2.   If not, how much money has been paid to SCC as a percentage of the overall scheme cost?

3.   Could you please outline the reasons for the delay in approving what was once considered an "Emergency" Active Travel Fund 2 Scheme.

 

In response, the Chair advised that of the total £2,300,000 awarded to Sheffield City Council £303,247 had been claimed and paid to the Council. The remaining funding was forecast to be spent and claimed by the end of the third quarter of 2023. The paid funds of £303,247 represented 13% of the total scheme costs.

 

The project consisted of 8 interventions, 5 of which were complete and 2 were forecast to start and complete by March 2023. The final intervention, Shoreham Street, was equivalent in size to the others combined. The design and consultation process had meant that the project had experienced delays whilst the intervention was finalised, and a business case submitted to the MCA for approval. The Full Business Case was received in April 2022 and approved by MCA Board in June 2022. Since this point individual interventions had been delivered, and the Shoreham Street intervention was progressing to approval of the Temporary Traffic Regulation Order, which was required prior to works starting. 

 

43.

Minutes of the Last Meeting pdf icon PDF 432 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 1 September be approved.

44.

Matters Arising / Action Log pdf icon PDF 317 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Infrastructure & Place queried whether there had been any progress relating to the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership.

 

ACTION: Democratic Services to contact the Head of Strategic Transport, Sustainability and Infrastructure (SCC) for a progress update on the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership to be circulated to the Board.

 

RESOLVED that the Action Log be noted.

 

45.

Bus Update pdf icon PDF 442 KB

1.       October bus changes

2.       Progressing Enhanced Partnership

3.       Franchising: Case for Change     

Additional documents:

Minutes:

i.              October Bus Changes

The Corporate Director of Public Transport presented a report on the recent changes to the Bus Network.

 

The Department for Transport (DfT) had announced an unexpected extension to the Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) for another 6 months from the end of September. While most operators planned to accept this additional support, First had made the decision not to accept further BRG funding. Following discussions with DfT, it had been confirmed that the MCA would receive First’s allocation of around £1.1m per quarter to protect services. However, there would still be a significant shortfall which would be subsidised from MCA reserves which would not be sustainable longer term. It was also noted that it had not been possible to protect all services as a number of tenders had not received any bids due to a shortage of bus drivers.

 

The Executive Director of Infrastructure & Place stated that the delays experienced in providing timetable information at bus stops were regrettable. The short notice of the Government’s extension had impacted on changes to services. This had in turn highlighted issues with the MCA’s legacy systems used to translate timetable data into public information and which were no longer fit for purpose. Options for upgrading systems were under review.

 

The Corporate Director of Public Transport informed that Board that the MCA had been working with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to learn about their bus driver training scheme and explore similar ideas for South Yorkshire.

 

RESOLVED that the Board:

1.   Note the use of up to £7.2m of reserves for supporting bus services to the end of July 2023;

2.   Note that non-statutory school services have been successfully protected for a period of two academic years by drawing on the MCA’s financial reserves;

3.   Note that continued BRG funding will be available to part protect the network for a period of up to six months.

 

ii.                     Progressing Enhanced Partnership

The Executive Director of Infrastructure & Place introduced the update on the Enhanced Partnership (EP).

 

The EP had been set up in April 2022 and built around a significant bid for Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding which had proved unsuccessful.

 

The original EP/BSIP would bring some beneficial improvements for passengers.  The EP had agreed to limit service changes to twice a year and price increases to once per year.  

Within the next year the EP was planning to:

·    Order the first zero-emission buses for South Yorkshire;

·    Rollout real time information screens at bus stops;

·    Consolidate data available across multiple platforms and launch a single source of information for buses in South Yorkshire;

·    Expand SMART ticketing and simplify fares.

 

It was now time to look at what more could be done in the absence of Government funding. Passengers should not have to wait until franchising or other longer term measures became possible. Discussions had been progressing with operators on options for low-cost enhancements in the customer offer during 2023. The next EP Board would be taking a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

46.

Programme Approvals pdf icon PDF 516 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Assistant Director of Procurement, Contracts & Programme Controls introduced the paper on Programme Approvals, which sought approval to progress the following 3 schemes:

·    The station access improvements at Darton and Elsecar to full approval and the award of £0.54m grant to Barnsley MBC;

·    The Town Centre to Oakwell Active Travel scheme to Outline Business Case (OBC) with the release of £2m funding to Barnsley MBC;

·    The Mass Transit project for progression to the MCA Board to approve the development cost funding release of £8.6m for urgent works and £4.34m to develop the OBC for submission to DfT in 2023/24.

 

The report also requested approval for the Local Authority’s and MCA to have the flexibility to manage their project allocations at a programme level where unforeseen circumstances dictate. This flexibility would be limited to projects already in the programme and any requests would be presented to the Assurance Panel and reported to the board.

 

It was noted that 2 projects were approved through the delegated authority of the Chief Executive due to MCA Board being postponed for the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

 

 RESOLVED that the Board consider and approve:

·       Progression of ‘CRSTS55 Mass Transit – Network Infrastructure (Phase 1 & 2) to MCA for approval to proceed from Strategic Business Case (SBC) to Outline Business Case (OBC) and release of development cost funding of £4.35m and early capital cost funding of £8.61mm from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) to South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) subject to the conditions set out in the Assurance Summary attached at Appendix B1;

·       Progression of ‘T0010 Station Access Improvements’ to full approval and award of £0.54m grant from Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (BMBC) subject to the conditions set out in the Assurance Summary attached at Appendix A1;

·       Progression of ‘MSF0004 – Town Centre to Oakwell Active Travel’ SBC to FBC subject to the conditions set out in the Assurance Summary attached at Appendix B2;

·       Approval of flexibilities within the TCF programme as detailed in Section 1.6;

·       Delegated authority be given to the Head of Paid Service in consultation with the Section 73 and Monitoring Officer to enter in legal agreements for the schemes at 2 and 4 above.

 

RESOLVED that the Board note:

Delegated approval by Chief Executive of two schemes T0003 A61 Royston Active Travel Scheme’ to full approval and award of £5.2m grant and ‘T0012 A635 Active Travel Scheme’ to full approval and award of £2.4m grant. Both schemes are to be funded from Transforming Cities Fund to BMBC subject to the conditions set out in the Assurance Summary attached as Appendix D1 and D2. This urgent decision was required in light of the rescheduling MCA Board from 19 September 2022 due to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

 

47.

Programme Performance pdf icon PDF 554 KB

Minutes:

The Assistant Director of Procurement, Contracts & Programme Controls presented a report on Programme Performance.

 

There were currently 138 projects with an aggregate value of £749.23m within the remit of the Transport and the Environment Board.

 

Members requested a dashboard of programmes, from which selected schemes could be chosen to consider in more depth. The Chief Executive of BMBC suggested that the local authority Chief Executives collectively review the more detailed information to focus the Board on any areas of concern and identify any common themes.

 

It was noted that the Executive Director of Finance & Investment had been unable to attend but would provide an update on the Business Process Review at the next meeting.

 

The Executive Director of Infrastructure and Place and the Chief Executive of BMBC be asked to develop an enhanced template for monitoring and engage with Chief Executive collectively on period reviews of performance.

 

 RESOLVED that Board members:

Consider the performance information provided to identify future performance deep-dives or significant areas of risk.

 

48.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

As there was no other business, the Chair thanked all for their attendance and contributions and closed the meeting.