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.

The Chairperson, welcomed everyone to the meeting and on behalf of the Committee, congratulated Jennifer Craw on being awarded an MBE as part of the King’s 2025 New Year’s Honours list.

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

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

(1)      Professor George Boyne on behalf of himself, Sir Ian Wood and Jennifer Craw made a transparency statement indicating that they had a connection to any issues affecting Opportunity North East, in particular matters relating to the Food Hub, BioAberdeen and the  Energy Transition Zone (ETZ), which may arise during the meeting, by virtue of them being Board Members of ONE, Bio Aberdeen Limited, the Food Hub (NES) Limited and ETZ. However, having applied the objective test he indicated that they did not consider that they had an interest to declare and would remain in the meeting. This was because, in practice, funding was allocated by agreement with government and in line with the tripartite agreement;

(2)      Councillor Owen made a transparency statement, by virtue of her being a Board Member of Opportunity North East. Having applied the objective test she had concluded that she did not have an interest to declare and she would remain in the meeting; and

(3)      Councillor Allard made a transparency statement, by virtue of him being a Board Member of Opportunity North East. Having applied the objective test he had concluded that he did not have an interest to declare and he would remain in the meeting.

The Joint Committee had before it a report by Lindsay McKenzie, Opportunity North East which sought approval for a 5G Pop-Up network project material change request.

The report recommended:-

that the Joint Committee approve the material change request as outlined within Appendix A.

The Joint Committee received a presentation from Karen O’Hanlon, who provided an overview of the project which included details regarding the value of private 5G networks for rural businesses and the benefits of 5G over traditional connectivity, which boosted productivity, drove innovation, lowered costs, and supported digital transformation and innovation.

She made reference to a pilot project relating to ‘Herd Advance’, which used infrared cameras for livestock health monitoring.

She also outlined the challenges and insights from the Pilot Phase of the Project, indicating that businesses would require significant technical support to adopt 5G and that planning and installation timelines would be longer than expected.

Ms O’Hanlon also provided details on the proposed way forward (two options) and the budget which remained unchanged.

Following questions and discussions relating to the report, the Joint Committee considered whether a phased approach on the delivery of the projects could be beneficial.

The Joint Committee resolved:-

to approve the material change request on the condition that updates are provided to the Joint Committee on the continued progress of each deployment. 

-         COUNCILLOR IAN YUILL, Chairperson