Issue - decisions

(1)      The progress made following the submission of the regional City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement bid to Government in January 2022 was noted.

(2)      The Section 151 Officer was approved to accept the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (in full or an interim settlement), subject to any such settlement being in line with the original programme level business case agreed by the WMCA Board, and subject to the terms and conditions of the grant being acceptable to the Section 151 Officer.

(3)      The use of the Single Assurance Framework with some additional scheme assurance measures as set out in the programme business case as agreed by the WMCA Board in January 2022 was noted.

(4)      The extension of the role and remit of Investment Board to cover all WMCA transport projects (including the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement programme) allowing investment decisions to be made for values between £5m and £20m in line with the Single Assurance Framework was approved.

(5)      The strengthening of the existing the Investment Panel to provide technical scrutiny and due-diligence support to the Investment Board and the WMCA Board on all proposed approvals for WMCA transport investment was noted, which would provide the Investment Panel with greater technical specialist knowledge and capacity to address these constraints within the workload of the existing panel.

(6)      The reporting and monitoring arrangements for the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement was approved, with quarterly reporting and monitoring to the Strategic Transport Board and annual reporting to the WMCA Board and the Government respectively.

(7)      The volume of work falling to the WMCA as the Accountable Body and the number of investment decisions that would need to be made in a timely manner over the next five years was noted.

(8)      The use of the retained City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement capacity funding contingency to fund the Accountable Body and Assurance requirements associated with the fund was approved.

(9)      Subject to Government confirming the funding, the allocations for the following programmes were approved, and it was endorsed that these programmes needed not be subject to the standard Single Assurance Framework assurance processes as these were overarching programme allocations:

(a)      £7m from the overall City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement programme to cover data, modelling and mandatory monitoring and evaluation costs over the lifetime of the programme.

(b)      The Local Network Improvement Plans (essentially the replacement for Integrated Transport Block) to local authorities and the WMCA.

(c)      Highways maintenance allocations to relevant local authorities.

(10)    It was noted that this meeting would also be asked to consider under separate agenda items urgent funding decisions on four schemes to be funded through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement programme.