Agenda and draft minutes

The agenda, reports and meeting recordings associated with this minute can be located here.

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

The Chairperson proposed that the Joint Committee consider agenda item 10 (City Region Deal – Financial Update Q3 2020/21 – Exempt Appendix) with the press and public excluded.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

in terms of Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting at item 10, so as to avoid disclosure of information of the classes described in paragraph 6 of Schedule 7(A) to the Act.

Members are Required to Intimate any Declarations of Interest in Respect of the Items on Today’s Agenda.

Members were requested to intimate any declarations of interest in respect of the items on today’s agenda, thereafter the following were intimated:-

(1)      Councillor Lumsden declared an interest in item 7 (Aberdeen City Region Deal Quarterly Progress Update), specifically as it contained information in relation to the Bio-Hub, by virtue of him being a Council appointed Board Member of NHS Grampian. He considered that the nature of his interest did not require him to leave the meeting during the consideration of this item; and

(2)      Sir Ian Wood, Professor Stephen Logan, Jennifer Craw and Councillor Andy Kille declared an interest in item 7 (Aberdeen City Region Deal Quarterly Progress Update), specifically as it contained information in relation to the Bio-Hub, by virtue of them being Board Members of Opportunity North East. They considered that the nature of their interest did not require them to leave the meeting during the consideration of this item.

The Joint Committee had before them a notification of a change to its membership as follows:-

Councillor Andy Kille to replace Councillor Jim Gifford as an Aberdeenshire Council substantive member.

At this juncture, the Chairperson advised that Patrick Machray had resigned as an Opportunity North East (ONE) substantive member and would be replaced by Jennifer Craw; and that Professor John Harper had also resigned as an Opportunity North East substitute member and that he would be replaced by Professor George Boyne.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note the change to the membership in relation to Aberdeenshire Council; and

(ii)       to approve the ONE membership changes.

With reference to the resignation of Councillor Gifford, the Chairperson sought nominations for the position of Vice Chairperson of the Joint Committee, whereupon:-

The Chairperson, seconded by Councillor Argyle, moved:-

that Councillor Kille be appointed as Vice Chairperson of the Joint Committee.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to appoint Councillor Kille as Vice Chairperson.

The Joint Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 13 November 2020, for approval.

With reference to article 8 (resolution (vi) and (vii)), Derek McGowan, Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment, Aberdeen City Council advised that to date, he had not received a response from the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government, Housing and Planning in relation to the request to (1) seek greater flexibility in the criteria for the £20m Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) funding; and (2) to provide formal assurances that HIF funding would be available after 31 March 2021 to unlock sites of strategic importance for affordable housing.

With reference to article 7 (Scottish Government Additional Investment Update – Transport Projects), Paul Finch, Nestrans provided an update on the Aberdeen to Central Belt Rail project, specifically the journey time aspirations and the other benefits proposed by Transport Scotland.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

(i)       that due to the impending 31 March 2021 deadline in relation to the Housing Infrastructure Fund, that a further letter to be signed by the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Sir Ian Wood, be sent to the Cabinet Secretary seeking an urgent response to the letter issued previously;

(ii)       that the Briefing Note prepared by Paul Finch issued by the Clerk to members on 11 January 2021, relating to the journey time savings for the Aberdeen to Central Belt Rail project be re-circulated to members with the inclusion of any recent information received from Transport Scotland to date; and

(iii)      to otherwise approve the minute.

The Joint Committee had before it a report by the Programme Manager which provided information on the progress of the City Region Deal and its constituent workstreams, through the body of the report and Appendix A – Quarterly Progress Report.

The report recommended:-

that the Joint Committee –

(a)      note the content of the report, its appendices, and the progress made; and

(b)      approve the Committee Dates for 2021/22 outlined in section 3.1 of the report.

The proposed future meeting dates all commencing at 9.30am were outlined as follows:-

14 May 2021;

20 August 2021;

12 November 2021; and

04 February 2022.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Joint Committee had before it a report by Wendy Robertson, Digital Lead which (1) provided an update on the timescales for presenting the Digital Infrastructure full business case; and (2) sought permission to accelerate one of the options by using Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils’ Digital funding at a cost of £220,000.

The report recommended:-

that the Joint Committee –

(a)      note the timescales for the Digital Infrastructure Full Business Case has moved from February 2021 to at least May 2021 as it is dependent on when we receive information from the Scottish Government on the R100 premise level data as relevant to the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire area. The delay to R100 will see at least a five-month delay to the Business Case approval, depending on when the outcome is known and the governance approvals stages with the Scottish Government and Joint Committee that follow; and

(b)      approve Option 2 in the interim - which is the utilisation of a 0.5 FTE up to 1FTE officer to drive demand stimulation and aggregation activities, with a further 1.5FTE if required, once the R100 North Lot premise level data is determined. This is subject to Aberdeenshire Council committee approval on 11th March 2021, as per their governance for City Region Deal funding.

The Joint Committee heard from Wendy Robertson who highlighted the key information from the report and provided responses to questions from members, specifically in relation to the R100 Scheme.

The Joint Committee noted that BT’s Implementation Plan for the R100 scheme should be circulated to partners by late Spring/early Summer, following which the final Business Case would be prepared and submitted for consideration.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations contained within the report.

Please note that Exempt Information relating to this item is contained within the Exempt/Confidential Section of this agenda.

The Joint Committee had before it joint report from the Programme Manager and John Lovie, Aberdeenshire Council, which provided information on the finances of the Aberdeen City Region Deal for actual expenditure in financial year 2020/21 and the updated the 2020/21 forecast.

The report recommended:-

that the Joint Committee note the content of the report and its appendix.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendation.

In accordance with the decision recorded under article 1 of this minute, the following item of business was considered in private with the press and public excluded.

The Joint Committee had before it an exempt appendix relating to the City Region Deal – Financial Update Q3 2020/21 report, referred to at article 8 of this minute.

Jenifer Craw provided an update in relation to the Bio-Therapeutic Hub for Innovation and the Seed Pod (Food Hub for Innovation).

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to note the information contained within the exempt appendix.

The Chairperson, on behalf of the Joint Committee expressed her thanks to Alan Wood for the support and work he had undertaken for the Joint Committee as Finance Officer over the last few years. She wished him well, in his new role within Aberdeenshire Council.

The Chairperson advised that Mary Beattie would replace Alan as the Finance Officer for the Joint Committee.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to concur with the Chairperson.

-         COUNCILLOR JENNY LAING, Chairperson.