Growth deal scrutiny can begin soon

Councillors outside of the Powys and Ceredigion county councils cabinets will be able to look at and scrutinise the £110 million Mid Wales Growth Deal proposals soon.

At their meeting, members of the Growing Mid Wales Board agreed a number of tweaks to the legal agreement between the authority’s (Inter Authority Agreement – IAA) on the growth deal.

At the meeting Powys County Council’s head of legal and democratic services, Clive Pinney explained the proposals.

Mr Pinney: “There are three amendments to the IAA.

“The first is to redefine the scope of the definition of project to include the development of the portfolio business case and conclusion of the final deal agreement.”

“It’s relatively straightforward.”

A caveat had been included to allow audit committees to look at the work being done by the Board and how the funding was being spent.

Mr Pinney went on to explain that a joint overview scrutiny committee would be made up of councillors from both Ceredigion and Powys.

“This will formalise the agreement, 10 members will sit on the committee, five from each authority.

“The chair will rotate on an annual basis from authority to authority.”

He added that provision had been made for two substitutes and that members of this committee should not be part of the “executive” of either Powys or Ceredigion.

From this committee, “task and finish” groups could be formed to look at various aspects of the deal in greater detail, and then report their findings back to the rest of the scrutiny committee.

PCC leader, Cllr Rosemarie Harris who was chairing the meeting, asked, when does scrutiny begin?

Mr Pinney replied that it hadn’t started yet and that both cabinets also had to approve the recommendation first before the new scrutiny committee could be formed.

Ceredigion council leader, Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn pointed out that the IAA agreement was only valid until the deal had been fully agreed.

Cllr ap Gwynn believed that forming the committee needed to be done quickly so that it could be in place for when the full agreement is signed off by Ceredigion, Powys, the Welsh, and UK Governments.

“We need to get our skates on, we’ve only got a maximum of six months left,” said Cllr ap Gwynn.

The board approved the changes unanimously.

The Welsh and UK Government believe the growth deal has an “important part” to play in the recovery phase of the economy, after Covid-19.

In October 2019, the UK Government announced a £55 million injection of funding, that was to be spread over 15 years.

In March, this timescale was shortened to 10 years.

The Welsh Government will match the £55million but have yet to say whether they will drop the timescale down from 15 to 10 years.

The GMW Board is made up of councillors from the cabinets of both Ceredigion and Powys County Council as well as some representation from private business in the region.

 

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service