Agenda and draft minutes

The agenda, reports and recording of the meeting 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.

Councillor Stirling (Vice Chair) advised that she would be chairing the meeting today and welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Joint Committee.

The Clerk advised that apologies for absence had been submitted by Councillors Nicoll (Chairperson), Yuill and Findlater and that Councillors McLellan, Macdonald and Cox would be substituting for them respectively. He further advised that Professor George Boyne had also intimated his apologies.

Members are required to intimate any Declarations of Interest or Transparency Statements in respect of the items on today’s agenda.

Sir Ian Wood intimated that he and Jennifer Craw had a connection to?item 6 (Aberdeen City Region Deal Quarterly Progress Update) and?any other issue affecting Opportunity North East (ONE),??in particular matters?relating to the Food Hub?and BioAberdeen and the new Energy Transition Zone (ETZ), which may arise during?this meeting, by virtue of them being Board Members of ONE,?BioAberdeen Ltd, Food Hub (NES) Ltd and ETZ. However,?having applied the objective test they did not consider that they had an interest to declare and would not be withdrawing from the meeting. This was because in practice, funding was allocated by agreement with government and in line with the tripartite agreement.

The Joint Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 18 November 2022, for approval.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to approve the minute.

With reference to article 4 of the minute of the previous meeting of 18 November 2022, the Joint Committee had before it a report which provided an update in relation to programme milestones, benefits, finance and risk.

The report recommended:-

that the Joint Committee – 

(a)      note the content of the Programme Update and Projects Update at Appendix A; and

(b)      note the updated Integrated Impact Assessment 3.1.4 and Appendix B.

The Joint Committee heard from Paul Macari, Head of Planning and Environment, Aberdeenshire Council who provided a digital update, making reference to Project Gigabit, the £5bn UK Government initiative which aimed to extend the reach of Gigabit Broadband into hard-to-reach communities.

The Joint Committee heard from Alan McKay, Teams Leader, Roads Project, Aberdeen City Council who provided an update on the external road links to Aberdeen Harbour, specifically relating to Stage Two of the project pertaining to surveys, site investigation, landownerships, traffic modelling, walking/cycling assessments and key stakeholder meetings. Mr McKay advised that there had been no new significant risks identified that would delay the completion of the project at this time.

Mary Beattie, Head of Finance, Aberdeenshire Council responded to a question regarding the financial underspend within the budget, indicating that she had no reason to believe that the monies would not be carried forward to the next financial year, although confirmation would be received from the Scottish Government in their grant offer letter following submission of the City Region Deal bi-annual forecast.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Joint Committee had before it a report which presented the Aberdeen City Region Deal (CRD) Benefits Realisation Plan which sought approval for its wider publication and implementation.

The report recommended:-

that the Joint Committee endorses the report.

The Joint Committee heard from Richard Sweetnam, Chief Officer – City Growth, Aberdeen City Council on the key information from the report advising that the Benefits Realisation Plan was a requirement from the UK and Scottish Governments laid out in the Grant Offer Letter and would inform the final evaluation of the CRD project.

During discussion, Sir Ian Wood indicated that he was surprised that there were no key issues on growth outlined within the report, expressing concerns that the huge strength of oil and gas in the North East of Scotland, the potential of the new energies and the Energy Transition Zone had not been highlighted.

In response, Mr Sweetnam made reference to the evaluation plan, which had been specific in terms of measuring the contribution of the City Region Deal projects towards the policy objectives across the financial contributions, stating that this report outlined and assessed the impacts of the projects funded through the CRD. He explained that this plan was a separate piece of work to the new Regional Economic Strategy which had been developed.

In response to a question from the Chair regarding the possibility of reviewing CRD Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Mr Sweetnam indicated that regular progress updates on the CRD projects were reported at each meeting and that the next Annual Report would have KPI’s therein for assessment.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

(i)       to approve the recommendation; and

(ii)       to request that the Chief Officer – City Growth consider how best to provide assurance to the Joint Committee in relation to whether CRD funded projects were on the right track to deliver within the CRD programme and beyond, and to submit a report in this regard as appropriate.

At this juncture the Chair made reference to her attendance at the opening of the National Sub Sea Centre, indicating that she received a very impressive demonstration of the potential of the centre. She encouraged members to undertake a visit to the centre.

The Joint Committee heard from Nicola McIntosh and Rebecca Allison, Net Zero Training Centre (NZTC) and were shown three short video presentations in relation to the following companies:-

·       Intebloc Limited – specialist crane and lifting technology to improve efficiency;

·       Flylogix – inspection and emission monitoring using drone technology mobilised onshore; and

·       Mocean – wave energy technology to provide reliable, affordable and renewable power for subsea devices.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to note the video presentations and the benefits of the NZTC.

-         COUNCILLOR ANNE STIRLING, Vice Chairperson