Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies were noted as above.

Members declared interests in respect of items 9 and 10 regarding schemes in their own council areas.

None.

None.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 4^th March 2021 be agreed as a true record.

Richard Sulley introduced himself as the Net Zero Project Director.

He informed the Board that he had been in post from 1^st April and his role was to mobilise and operationalise the existing Net Zero programme to deliver on the pledges that had been made to be net zero by 2040.

Over the next few months and years he would be attending Board meetings and presenting more substantive reports on how it was intended to deliver on the pledges.

P Kennan commented the Transport for the North (TfN) had just issued its draft Decarbonisation Strategy for consultation and asked whether the SCR would be responding.

R Sulley replied that the TfN Strategy mirrored SCR thinking e.g. looking at whole lifecycle carbon infrastructure projects in the decision making process.

The draft strategy had only been published last week and more time was needed to work up a response.  The Board would be consulted on the response.

With regard to the Yorkshire and Humber Net Zero forum, this was still in the formation stage of understanding what its role would be.

In relation to the newly-launched SME low carbon business support grant, there was no information as yet as to how this would be supported.

The Chair thanked R Sulley for his attendance at the meeting.

A report was considered which provided an update of the South Yorkshire Bus Improvement Programme (SYBIP) and considered the links to the National Bus Strategy (NBS) and Bus Service Improvement Plan guidance.  The report presented the first set of outputs from Work Package 1 for discussion to shape their development and to ensure their alignment to the requirements of the Bus Service Improvement Plan.

Appendix A contained :

• Shaping a vision for the bus in South Yorkshire including commitments from Operators and Districts.
• The role of bus and other modes of transport.
• Priority themes and objectives.

Board members were asked if they thought anything was missing from the vision described at Appendix A.

Cllr Read reported that, at another meeting, Mayor Jones had emphasised the importance of buses in more deprived areas where residents were far less likely to own cars and were therefore more dependent on buses.  It was important to prioritise bus infrastructure in these areas which would have an impact on an inclusive economy.  Although ‘supporting a thriving and inclusive economy’ was included within the vision this could be worded more strongly to prioritise communities where the need was greatest.

Members were asked how they felt about the level of ambition displayed within the document and should any areas be prioritised above others.

Cllr Johnson felt it was important to be clear that ‘levelling up’ in this instance was within South Yorkshire and not the government’s north-south levelling up initiative.

With regard to the bus fleet upgrade to support the net zero ambition, Cllr Johnson felt that this should be made a priority and operators should be encouraged to speed up their fleet replacement.

J Spruce replied that the vision did not just rely on the operators fleet replacement programme, officers were proactively looking at sources of funding available from government to speed up the renewal programme.

P Kennan commented that the vision should address the main points contained within the Bus Review and also reinforce the messages in the Strategic Economic Plan, for example, growing the economy but not at the expense of environmental sustainability and inclusivity.

The Board felt it was important to be clear that the vision included support for the most deprived areas and to ensure that everyone in South Yorkshire had a realistic choice.

Officers would now work with partners, local authorities, business, the LEP and operators to develop this further and report back to the Board at its September meeting.

Cllr Johnson said that, as a new member, he would appreciate a session with officers to get him up to speed.

RESOLVED – That the Board note the linkages between the South Yorkshire Bus Improvement Programme, WP1 outputs and the requirements of the Bus Service Improvement Plan.

A report was considered which provided an update on the Government’s approach to multi-year Intra City Settlements for Mayoral Combined Authorities.

The Board was reminded that in the 2020 Spending Review the Government confirmed the Intra City Transport Settlements (ICTS) for eight Mayoral Combined Authorities totalling £4.2bn which would be available starting in 2022-23 with revenue funding available in 2021-22 to prepare.

The Government had provided further detail on the approach to consolidated multi-year transport funding for MCAs.  The purpose of the Intra City Transport Settlements was to:

1.       Boost local growth and productivity;

2.       Level up opportunity;

3.       Drive decarbonisation; and

4.       Provide long-term fiscal sustainability.

The allocation of funding would be determined through negotiations based on the development of local transport plans.  Government advice had been that these negotiations would take place over the second half of the year, however the most recent update had indicated that the process wold now need to be completed before the summer.  Further written guidance had been expected to be published in early June which would include confirmed deadlines and an indicative funding envelope but this was still awaited.

This meant that that the full details of submission requirements remained uncertain.  Delivery of the submission would require commitment of resources across multiple organisations at the same time as other pressures were impacting resource capacity.

The plan needed to include a prioritised list of costed projects.  MCA and Local Authority transport teams had begun to establish a pipeline of prospective projects, however it was noted that these were at varying degrees of readiness.

It was noted that an informal TEB session had been arranged for 9^th July and it was hoped that this could be used to go through the guidance and discuss how the process wold be approached.

In answer to a question from Cllr Beck, J Holmes informed the Board that there were no plans as yet for the revenue funding but this would be looked at in conjunction with the capital funding.  There was no time limit as to when the money had to be spent.

RESOLVED – That the Board note the recent update from Government on Intra City Transport Settlements for Mayoral Combined Authorities and the need  to commence activity on preparing a submission.

A report was considered which provided details of a new scheme that was requesting inclusion in the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF).

The scheme was the Rotherham, Broom Road Active Travel (£3m total – TCF contribution of £1.5m) and consisted of two elements:

• Construction of cycleways along Wellgate and Broom Road, with associated works at junctions and crossings.
• Works to provide improved conditions for walking and cycling along Broom Valley Road.

RESOLVED – That the Board approve the inclusion of the ‘Expression of Interest’ set out in Section 2.3 of the report within the Transforming Cities programme for development to Outline Business Case.

A report was submitted which sought programme approval from the Transforming Cities Fund Tranche 2 and Active Travel Fund Phase 2.

RESOLVED – That the Board approve:

i)         Progression of Doncaster College to Doncaster Station Outline Business Case to Full Business Case and release up to £59k business development cost funding from Transforming Cities Fund Tranche 2 to Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council subject to the conditions set out in the Assurance Summary attached at Appendix A to the report.

ii)        Subject to approval of Item 9, progression of Broom Road Cycleways to Outline Business Case from Transforming Cities Fund Tranche 2 to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

iii)       Progression of Elsecar Active Travel Link Outline Business Case to Full Business Case and release up to £67k business case development cost funding from Active Travel Fund Phase 2 to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council subject to the conditions set out in the Assurance Summary attached at Appendix B to the report.

iv)       Progression of Goldthorpe Active Neighbourhood Outline Business Case to Full Business Case and release up to £57k business case development cost from Active Travel Fund Phase 2 to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council subject to the conditions set out  in the Assurance Summary attached at Appendix C to the report.

v)       Delegated authority to be given to the Head of Paid Service in consultation with the Section 73 Officer and Monitoring Officer enter into legal agreements for the points covered above.

This item was exempt by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

A report was submitted which provided an update on the performance of key areas of SYPTE activity.

RESOLVED – That the Board note the contents of the report.

J Holmes informed the Board that a bid for the levelling up fund would be submitted to Government by the deadline of 18^th subject to a review by Cllr Read and P Kennan.

S Edwards informed the Board that DfT had been asked to submit a proposal to extend light rail funding for a further four weeks from 21^st June and a similar proposal for bus was a two week extension which would take it to the end of August.

P Kennan commented on serious problems experienced in recent weeks by East Midlands Railways such as delays, numerous cancellations and overcrowding and queried what was being done about it.

S Edwards would circulate details of the current situation and what steps East Midland Railways were taking to rectify the problems.