Issue - meetings

Oral report to explain about the Local Liaison Forum:

·       Why it was established.

·       Governance structure.

·       Decisions made to date and when it will meet again.

·       How the LLF interacts with the City Deal.

·       Work such as:

o   A428 bus corridor.

o   Western corridor orbital route.

The Committee received a verbal presentation from the Chair of the Local Liaison Forum (LLF) regarding the aims, governance, membership and actions of the LLF to date.

The presentation outlined:

       i.          Referred to details on the Greater Cambridge City Deal website (http://www4.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/citydeal/).

     ii.          The first LLF meeting was 14 June 2016. It was established as a public engagement forum. Ten key issues were debated and resolutions adopted. These would be reported to the City Deal Executive Board 13 July. The Chair of the Local Liaison Forum would attend the Board meeting to ask City Deal Members how the LLF could better input into Executive Board decision making.

   iii.          The next LLF meeting was timetabled for W/C 13 September. An update on progress would be sent to West Central Area Committee.

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

       i.          Residents were just beginning to appreciate the impact of the City Deal on their communities. LLFs were a way to feed into City Deal deliberations.

     ii.          Officers servicing the City Deal should respond to LLF resolutions (there was a perception they did not).

The Chair of the Local Liaison Forum said the following in response to Members’ questions:

       i.          This was the first LLF to engage with the City Deal Joint Assembly, others had not. Transparency and scrutiny of decision making was sought.

     ii.          Members of the public could attend City Deal meetings, but only elected representatives could vote. Public questions could be sent to the LLF by email to be raised at City Deal meetings if members of the public were unable to attend in person.

In response to Members’ questions the Project Manager said that officers responded to LLF resolutions then made recommendations to the City Deal Project Board for discussion and voting on.

Ms Heath, speaking as a member of the public, made the following points:

       i.          She had attended a number of City Deal Executive Board meetings but was still unclear on how the process worked.

     ii.          It was hard for people to attend City Deal meetings as details were hard to find.