Agenda item

C Blackburn introduced a paper which requested the Board to consider and approve the final draft South Yorkshire Digital Infrastructure Strategy Delivery Plan. 

The Board was reminded that the South Yorkshire Digital Infrastructure Strategy had been approved by the MCA Board on 20 September 2021, where it was requested that the Housing and Infrastructure Board prepare a Delivery Plan for implementation of the Strategy and oversee delivery. 

The draft Delivery Plan had been presented at the December 2021 meeting of the Board, where Members had made several comments and suggestions.  In particular, concerns had been raised around securing resources to support the South Yorkshire Digital Team. 

Taking account of feedback from Members of the Board, a final draft Delivery Plan was presented at Appendix A for the Board’s consideration and approval. 

The Board noted that identified actions and interventions were estimated to cost £1.88m over the next 5 years, with around £1.1m of this required to deliver the short-term (next 2 years) priority interventions. 

Funding to support the implementation of the Delivery Plan’s actions, including supporting the existing Digital Team, has been included within the MCA 2022/23 Business Plan and budget. 

R Shepherd provided the Board with an overview of the overarching key priority actions / interventions set out in the Delivery Plan, which were underpinned by five key goals. 

The Board were informed that work on several actions was currently underway.  Actions were also contained in the Delivery Plan where it had been identified that there would need to be future spends.  Indicative cost levels had been identified wherever possible against each action; however, further work would be required in some areas to identify and refine costs.

In relation to the Project Gigabit programme, the Board was informed that an initial pre-procurement stage to undertake an Open Market Review (OMR), was launched in South Yorkshire on 4 February 2022. 

The OMR is used to consult the digital infrastructure telecom providers to understand their existing and future build plans, which provides the data to define the Intervention Area where Project Gigabit funding could be targeted.  This was a critically important and a necessary initial stage in developing the Project Gigabit programme in South Yorkshire.

Procurement of a provider (led by Department of Communities, Media and Sport and supported by the Digital Team) was due to begin in November 2022, with programme roll-out expected from late 2023.

The Board noted that Yorkshire Water, with a consortium of partners, had bid for Government funding to pilot an innovative Fibre in Water scheme, delivering advanced broadband and mobile services via drinking water mains. 

If successful, the scheme would improve digital connectivity at The Seam (Barnsley’s digital campus), Dodworth Business Park and poorly served communities in Penistone.

The Board noted that the actions contained within the Delivery Plan would be updated on an ongoing basis with further progress updates provided at future Board meetings.

The Board requested that bi-monthly progress update reports be scheduled into the Board’s Forward Plan of work.  ACTION: R Shepherd. 

M Faulks commented that there was now an urgency to implement all the actions contained in the Delivery Plan.  He referred to the South Yorkshire Economic Summit held on 9 March 2022, where discussions had taken place around innovation and the Innovation Board’s support for SMEs becoming a foundation for what the SYMCA is trying to achieve: without the appropriate digital infrastructure in the region, it would be very difficult to support businesses. 

Councillor Fox added that, the extent of digital inclusion in the region needed to be addressed urgently.   The covid pandemic has shown the importance of digital connectivity to addressing digital inclusion.

D Allen requested that the Board receives regular progress updates in relation to the work being undertaken to address digital inclusion. 

Councillor Jones said that the capacity for people to work from home due to digital poverty also needed to be addressed.  In addition, he said that it would be difficult for the region to achieve its carbon neutral targets if the region did not have the correct digital connectivity. 

M Swales acknowledged the Board’s comments and confirmed that addressing digital inclusion was a priority of the SYMCA. 

RESOLVED – That the Board:

i)        Noted and approved the Delivery Plan to take forward implementation of the South Yorkshire Digital Infrastructure Strategy. 

ii)    Requested that bi-monthly progress update reports on the implementation of South Yorkshire Digital Infrastructure Strategy Delivery Plan be scheduled into the Board’s Forward Plan of work.