Agenda item

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Councillor Ric Metcalfe reminded Council that a devolution agreement had been agreed for Greater Lincolnshire as part of the autumn statement presented to Parliament by the UK Government on 22 November 2023.

Following approval of the agreement at Council meetings for Lincolnshire County Council and the two unitary council partners, North and North East Lincolnshire Councils, consultation would follow on the arrangements through to the end of January 2024. The report invited Council to engage with the consultation exercise and implementation process.

It was advised that the devolution agreement would allocate an additional £24million per year to Greater Lincolnshire for 30 years, a total of £720million. Additionally, £28.4million had been allocated to Greater Lincolnshire, prior to the Mayoral Combined County Authority (MCCA) being established in 2025. The agreement would provide for devolution of strategy and budgets related to skills, providing local partners with the opportunity to focus on skills development for key local economic sectors. The agreement would also provide for devolution of multi-year transport budgets, with flexibility to allocate funds to local priorities.

In respect of the governance for devolution, the agreement would provide for the establishment of a MCCA, chaired by a directly elected mayor. The constituent authorities (Lincolnshire County, North and North East Lincolnshire Unitary Councils) would each have two seats on the MCCA.  District Councils would be allocated four seats, via a joint committee of district council leaders. District Councils would have voting rights other than in relation to transport and the mayor’s administrative budget and would have specific consenting rights in relation to some of the powers held by the MCCA. District Councils would also be allocated seats on a scrutiny panel and several advisory boards.

The consultation process would conclude on 29 January 2024; with a review of the proposals based on consultation responses being completed by the end of February 2024, leading to a submission to the UK Government in Spring 2024. It was then expected that the UK Government would put in place an Establishment Order for the new arrangements by summer 2024. The MCCA was due to be established in late 2024, with the election of a Greater Lincolnshire Mayor in May 2025.

During discussion of the report, the following points were noted:

·       Local planning authorities could not be overridden by the Directly Elected Mayor or the MCCA.

·       It was noted that within paragraph 132 of the Greater Lincolnshire Devolution Deal, that as the Local Transport Authority, the Greater Lincolnshire MCCA would be responsible for Bus Service Improvement Plans and that as part of paragraph 135, it stated that the MCCA would work with constituent Councils to deliver against the existing Bus Service Improvement Plans. 24% of households did not have access to a car and whilst focus would be given on rural connectivity, the issues in Lincoln should not be forgotten.

·       It was unclear at this stage what the proportionality on the scrutiny panel and advisory boards would be. Further to this, it was confirmed that as this would be a new authority being established, it would require the appointment of statutory posts, for example a Section 151 Officer, and to have certain committees in place, such as an Audit Committee.

·       As an Urban Council it was felt that the City of Lincoln Council should have one of the four seats available, as its needs were different to the Rural Councils.

·       It was suggested that residents would not want an additional level of bureaucracy with a directly elected mayor and this could add to confusion at the polls.

·       All Council leaders were commended by several Councils for their work on the proposal. 

·       It was anticipated that the directly elected mayor would be elected by the ‘first past the post’ system.

·       There were currently no proposals for the directly elected mayor to implement any powers to precept.

·       One councillor commented that the level of funding on offer was a modest amount and more funding was required to make this a better deal.

It was requested that any other additional comments should be emailed to the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive and Town Clerk as soon as possible to enable a submission by the deadline of 29 January 2024.

RESOLVED

That the Chief Executive and Town Clerk, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, be delegated authority to make a response to the consultation on behalf of the Council based on the comments made at the meeting and any further comments received.