Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Built Environment

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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 125