Agenda item

Joint report of the Chief Executive of Mansfield District Council and Interim Monitoring Officer of the East Midlands Combined County Authority.

Adam Hill, Chief Executive, Mansfield District Council, and Jodie Townsend, East Midlands Mayoral County Combined Authority, presented the report seeking the acceptance of the Economic Prosperity Committee (EPC) of the designation provided by the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) for it to be the nominating body for Nottinghamshire District and Borough Council Non-Constituent Members to the Combined County Authority.

If accepted this would make the Nottinghamshire Economic Prosperity Committee (EPC) responsible for the appointment of District and Borough Council representatives at the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) Board and its wider Committees.

During the discussion and in response to questions from the Committee, the following points were made:

(a)  the wider Committees that have been established on Transport, Skills and Employment, and Investment have been selected as they reflect the main areas of devolutionary powers. Planning and Housing sit with the EMCCA Board itself but it can establish further Committees if agreed;

(b)  an Innovation Committee was also agreed recently but this has not been formally established by the EMCCA Board;

(c)  the Committee discussed appointments to the committees reflecting political balance. However, they will need to have appointees with the right skillsets and be geographically spread so as not to overload officers in certain councils. This could be difficult to arrange due to the relatively small number of members required, and should be brought back to a future meeting for decision;

(d)  the Audit and Overview and Scrutiny Committees will be politically balanced.

Councillor Milan Radulovic proposed an additional recommendation to the Committee to recommend to the EMCCA Board that Housing and Planning, and Environment be added to their Committee structure, as these are areas that are very important to the local residents of the area. District and Borough Councils, and the City Council, are responsible for these areas on an operational level, but these Committees could provide a strategic oversight for the EMCCA region. This proposal was put to a vote.

Resolved to

(1)  accept the designation provided by East Midlands Combined County Authority to be the nominating body for Nottinghamshire District and Borough Council Non-Constituent Members to the Combined County Authority;

(2)  agree that the current representatives as set out in paragraph 3.5 of the report are the representatives nominated to the EMCCA Board until May 2025, at which point the representatives are reviewed through the selection process;

(3)  defer agreement that the process detailed in Appendix 1 of the report be adopted as a selection process for nominations to EMCCA Board from May 2025 to a future meeting, pending further discussion;

(4)  defer making nominations and substitute nominations to the East Midlands Combined County Authority wider committees in alignment with paragraph 3.8 of the report to a future meeting pending further discussion;

(5)  note the arrangements for appointment, disqualification, dismissal of Non-Constituent members to EMCCA as detailed in Part 5 of the EMCCA Constitution and attached as Appendix 2;

(6)  resolved to recommend to the EMCCA Board that Housing and Planning, and Environment be directly reflected within the EMCCA Committee structure as Committees in their own right.

Reasons for decisions:

·  To accept the designation provided by the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) to be the nominating body for Nottinghamshire District and Borough Council Non-Constituent Members to the Combined County Authority.

·  This would make the Nottinghamshire Economic Prosperity Committee (EPC) responsible for the appointment of District and Borough Council representatives at the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) Board and its wider Committees.

Other options considered:

·  EMCCA considered a wide range of membership possibilities when drafting the initial version of its constitution, however its commitment to inclusivity of District and Borough Councils given their position as key partners ruled out options that did not include District and Borough Council representation in its governance framework.