Friday 29 May: the first meeting of the municipal year for the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

I’m pleased to be re-elected to chair the committee for a second year, with Cambridge’s Cllr Kevin Price once again my deputy. Last year’s ‘lead members’ from our committee have also agreed to continue to shadow the Combined Authority’s Executive Committees: Cllrs Andy Coles and Alex Miscandlon for Skills, Cllr Ed Murphy for Housing, and Cllr Alan Sharp for Transport.

We receive the Combined Authority’s register of current projects, plus a number that have been completed or discontinued (we ask that the latter should be split out into those two respective groups – finishing something and abandoning it are quite distinct things!). We agree that our lead members should review the timelines for each of these projects so that we can ask the various Executive Committee chairs and officers to come to brief our committee at appropriate stages.

The committee’s CAM Metro task and finish group asks permission to extend its work into this year. We agree that as this will be a project with a long duration, and not without its controversies, this seems sensible. Our Bus Review task and finish group will also be continuing into the current municipal year.

We consider the issues the Combined Authority will be dealing with in the next twelve month, and ask for papers to our June meeting on key issues in Housing and Transport. We also agree to request a presentation to our meeting next month on Skills. Covid-19 will have considerable effects on jobs, training, apprenticeships, and potentially the viability of higher education institutions including the Combined Authority’s flagship University of Peterborough.

We discuss the Combined Authority Board’s papers for this coming Wednesday, and we agree three questions to ask the Board:

• The Overview & Scrutiny Committee received a written response following its question to the meeting of the Combined Authority Board on 29 April stating that ‘productive discussions’ were ongoing relating to the appointment of a Chair of the proposed Independent Commission on Climate Change. What have these discussions consisted of and have they resulted in the appointment of a Chair of the Independent Commission and other commissioners? What progress on this important piece of work has been made in the last month?
• There is an increased emphasis on active transport modes and an increased level of importance attached to cycling, walking and equestrian transport as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. What steps are being taken to prioritise active travel not only in the light of Covid-19 but more generally?
• The paper accompanying this item [the surrender of the Combined Authority’s lease at Alconbury] refers to savings that will be achieved as a result of the surrender of the lease on the Combined Authority headquarters in Alconbury. However, there are no assumptions included in terms of the costs associated with alternative accommodation. Can the Board provide a more accurate savings figure which takes into account such costs? Secondly, why is the Combined Authority paying a whole year’s rental costs to terminate the lease at Alconbury?

Our next meeting will be on Monday 22 June, before the Combined Authority Board meeting on Wednesday 24 June.

A full recording of the Overview & Scrutiny meeting is here.