Decision details

The Cabinet considered the report of the Director of Built Environment which indicated that as part of the City Region Deal, a Port Access Steering Group (chaired by Sefton Council) had been established and a work programme was being developed based on the recommendations of the Access to the Port of Liverpool Study. Several of the potential interventions require detailed feasibility studies or options assessment work to be completed before any specific proposals can be confirmed or implemented. This work needs to be done to enable the port access interventions to make progress.

In November 2012, the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) Executive Agency released a call for bids for the next round of TEN-T funding. The studies required for the port access work fit well within the scope and qualifying criteria for a TEN-T bid, which has enabled a proposed TEN-T Bid to be developed.

The report provided information about the proposed City Region TEN-T Bid which had been collaborated by the LEP and Sefton Council (as the lead authority for the port access element of the City Region Deal and proposals for Sefton Council to act as the accountable body for the Bid on behalf of the Liverpool City Region.

Decision Made: That:

(1)          the City Region proposal to submit a TEN-T Bid be endorsed and the proposed content and scope of the Bid be noted;

(2)          approval be given to the proposal that Sefton Council should be the accountable body for the Bid on behalf of the Liverpool City Region;

(3)          the Director of Built Environment submit a further report on the Bid once the outcome of that Bid is known; and

(4)          it be noted that the proposal is a Key Decision but had not been included in the Council’s Forward Plan of Key Decisions.  Consequently, the Leader of the Council and the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regeneration and Environmental Services) had been consulted under Rule 26 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules of the Constitution, to the decision being made by the Cabinet as a matter of urgency on the basis that it was impracticable to defer the decision until the commencement of the next Forward Plan because the deadline for submission of the Liverpool City Region Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) Bid is the 26 March 2013. If the decision was deferred until the next Forward Plan, the decision would not be made until the 28 March, after the submission deadline. Cabinet approval is required for Sefton Council to be identified as the accountable body on behalf of the Liverpool City Region for the proposed TEN-T funding bid. The item was not included on the Forward Plan because the Call for Proposals was released by the TEN-T Executive Agency on the 29 November 2012. The deadline for items for the Forward Plan for the Cabinet meeting on the 28 February 2013, was the 18 December 2012. Although initial discussions had been held by then about the submission of a Liverpool City Region Bid, the proposal that Sefton should be the accountable body had not been agreed. The proposal for Sefton to act on behalf of the LCR as the accountable body was endorsed by the LCR Port Access Steering Group on the 21 January 2013. The recent nature of the Call for Proposals and the decision that Sefton Council should be the accountable body meant that it was not included on the Forward Plan and the timing of future Cabinet and Council meetings means that it cannot be deferred to the next Forward Plan.

Reasons for Decision:

Sefton Council has been leading the co-ordination of City Region activities associated with port access on behalf of the City Region partners.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

Two other options were available. One option was not to submit a TEN-T Bid. Given the importance of the issue and the level of support from City Region partners, this was not a realistic option. The other option was for another partner to act as accountable body. However, the proposed arrangements for Sefton to act as accountable body had been discussed and agreed by the LCR partners and were consistent with Sefton’s role on behalf of the City Region partners in leading on port access issues. At this late stage, getting agreement for another organisation to act as accountable body would potentially put the Bid process at risk.