SELEP Accountability Board Agenda Pack 14Th September 2018
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ACCOUNTABILITY BOARD High House Production Park, Friday, 14 10:00 Vellacott Close, September 2018 Purfleet, Essex, RM19 1RJ Quorum: 3 (to include 2 voting members) Membership Mr Geoff Miles Chairman Cllr Kevin Bentley Essex County Council Cllr Paul Carter Kent County Council Cllr Rodney Chambers Medway Council Cllr Keith Glazier East Sussex County Council Cllr Rob Gledhill Thurrock Council Cllr John Lamb Southend Borough Council Angela O’Donoghue Further Education/ Skills representative Lucy Druesne Higher Education representative For information about the meeting please ask for: Lisa Siggins (Secretary to the Board) [email protected] Tel: 03330134594 Page 1 of 137 Meeting Information All meetings are held in public unless the business is exempt in accordance with the requirements of the Local Government Act 1972. Most meetings are held at High House Production Park, Purfleet. A map and directions to can be found http://hhpp.org.uk/contact/directions-to-high-house- production-park If you have a need for documents in the following formats, large print, Braille, on disk or in alternative languages and easy read please contact the Secretary to the Board before the meeting takes place. If you have specific access requirements such as access to induction loops, a signer, level access or information in Braille please inform the Secretary to the Board before the meeting takes place. For any further information contact the Secretary to the Board. The agenda is also available on the Essex County Council website Page 2 of 137 Part 1 (During consideration of these items the meeting is likely to be open to the press and public) Pages 1 Welcome and Apologies for Absence 2 Minutes 6 - 22 To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 15th June 2018. 3 Declarations of Interest To note any declarations of interest to be made by Members in accordance with the Members' Code of Conduct 4 Questions from the Public Public Questions In accordance with the Policy adopted by the SELEP, a period of up to 15 minutes will be allowed at the start of every Ordinary meeting of the Accountability Board to enable members of the public to make representations. No question shall be longer than three minutes, and all speakers must have registered their question by email or by post with the Managing Director of the South East LEP ([email protected]) by no later than 10.30am seven days before the meeting. Please note that only one speaker may speak on behalf of an organisation, no person may ask more than one question and there will be no opportunity to ask a supplementary question. On arrival, and before the start of the meeting, registered speakers must identify themselves to the member of staff collecting names. A copy of the Policy for Public Questions is made available on the SELEP website - http://www.southeastlep.com/images/uploads/resources/Pub licQuestionsPolicy.pdf Email ([email protected]) Page 3 of 137 5 Southend Airport Business Park LGF funding decision 23 - 45 6 Leigh Flood Storage Area LGF decision 46 - 54 7 Capital Programme Management of the Local Growth 55 - 82 Fund 8 M20 Junction 10a Update- Presentation 9 Growing Places Fund Update 83 - 97 10 Innovation Park Medway, Growing Places Fund Award 98 - 107 11 A13 Widening Update 108 - 115 12 Assurance Framework and Deep Dive Implementation 116 - 132 Update 13 Update on SELEP Revenue Budget 2018_19 133 - 137 14 Date of Next Meeting To note that the next meeting of the Board will be held on Friday 16th November 2018 at High House Production House. 15 Urgent Business To consider any matter which in the opinion of the Chairman should be considered in public by reason of special circumstances (to be specified) as a matter of urgency. Exempt Items (During consideration of these items the meeting is not likely to be open to the press and public) To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of an agenda item on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as specified in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 or it being confidential for the purposes of Section 100A(2) of that Act. In each case, Members are asked to decide whether, in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption (and discussing the matter in private) outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. Page 4 of 137 16 Urgent Exempt Business To consider in private any other matter which in the opinion of the Chairman should be considered by reason of special circumstances (to be specified) as a matter of urgency. Page 5 of 137 Friday, 15 June 2018 Minute 1 ______________________________________________________________________ Minutes of the meeting of the SELEP Accountability Board, held in High House Production Park Vellacott Close, Purfleet, Essex, RM19 1RJ on Friday, 15 June 2018 Present: Cllr Kevin Bentley Essex County Council Cllr Mark Dance Kent County Council Cllr Rodney Chambers Medway Council Cllr Keith Glazier East Sussex County Council Cllr Tony Cox Southend Borough Council Angela O’Donoghue Further Education/Skills representative Audrey Songhurst Higher Education representative ALSO PRESENT Having signed the attendance book Amy Beckett SELEP Suzanne Bennett Essex County Council Adam Bryan SELEP Paul Britton Rochester Airport Lee Burchill Kent County Council Jake Cartmell Steer Davies Gleave Essex County Council (As Deputy Monitoring Officer for the Kim Cole Accountable Body) Emma Cooney Southend Borough Council Helen Dyer Medway Council Anthony Finbow Member of the public Sunny Ee Medway Council Richard Hicks Medway Council Stephanie Holt-Castle Kent County Castle Ben Hook East Sussex County Council Tomasz Kozlowski. Medway Council Ian Lewis Opportunity South Essex Richard Longman TGKP Laurence Lucas Member of the public Mr W McLennan Member of the public Cllr Vince Maple Medway Council Andrew Metcalf Maxim Page 6 of 137 Friday, 15 June 2018 Minute 2 ______________________________________________________________________ Iain McNab BEIS/CLOG Essex County Council (as delegated S151 Officer for the Stephanie Mitchener Accountable Body) Fred Montague Member of the public Wendy Montague Member of the public Rhiannon Mort SELEP Lorna Norris Essex County Council Dick Searle Rochester Airport Lisa Siggins ECC Democratic Services Stephen Taylor Thurrock Council Caitlin Webb KM/BBC 1 Welcome and Apologies for Absence The following apologies were received: Councillor Paul Carter (substituted by Councillor Mark Dance) Lucy Druesne (substituted by Audrey Songhurst) Geoff Miles with Angela O'Donoghue acting as Chair in his absence Councillor John Lamb (substituted by Councillor Tony Cox) Councillor Rob Gledhill 2 Minutes The minutes of the meeting held on Friday, 27th April 2018 were agreed as an accurate record and were signed on behalf of the Chairman. 3 Declarations of Interest There were none. 4 Ombudsman Complaint Adam Bryan advised the Board that an Ombudsman complaint had been received. The Complaint: Medway Council obtained £4.4m of local government enterprise partnership money through fraudulent statements and declarations. The SELEP who awarded the funding have failed to independently investigate the serious accusations or take action to protect the integrity of the local enterprise partnership. The Ombudsman complaint has been referred to their investigation team for further consideration and to determine whether they will investigate the complaint. ECC has not yet received information from the Ombudsman that they are conducting an investigation, only that they are considering the substance of the complaint at this time. The Board were also provided with the following advice: Page 7 of 137 Friday, 15 June 2018 Minute 3 ______________________________________________________________________ If the Ombudsman do decide to investigate the complaint, then of course ECC and the SELEP Secretariat will co-operate with that process and will provide any papers requested by the Ombudsman. Part of the requirement of the complaint is that the complainant has been directly affected by the matter for which they are complaining about or it must have caused the person injustice, in addition the website stipulates that they will not normally look at a complaint if the issue affects most people in the Councils area. If an investigation is conducted, then the Ombudsman aims to reach a decision within 26 weeks. Nothing on their website, nor in their letter notifying the Accountable Body of the complaint suggests that any further decision making should be placed on hold. The decision to award the original £4.4m was taken in 10 June 2016. The decision before the board does not change the value of that funding allocation, but the work to be carried out within that funding bracket. In addition the Agreements in place between the Accountable Body and the upper tier authorities provide for the return of any misappropriated funding. Therefore if there is any findings made by the LGO or another authoritive body then any allocation will be returned. Where spend has already taken place against that funding, the relevant upper tier authority will be responsible, under the terms of the agreement, to under write those values and therefore will be ultimately responsible for any repayment. Accordingly should the Board determine that they have sufficient information before them today, and having heard the presentation from Medway and ITE, and considered the content of the report, and discussions they may have at the relevant point in the agenda, then they are able to consider the recommendations contained within that report, and vote accordingly, should they wish to do so. 5 Questions from the Public Question 1 Cllr Vince Maple, Leader of the Medway Labour Group and Councillor for Chatham Central, to Cllr Paul Carter For some time I, along with my Labour colleagues at Medway Council, have questioned whether the £4.4m LGF investment in the Rochester Airport project is best use of public money for growth in Medway.