Decision

That the West of England Combined Authority Committee:

(1)   Delegated the authority to the West of England Combined Authority Director of Place, in consultation with equivalent Directors from the Unitary Authorities, to approve the Full Business Case for the Distribution Hub once a suitable site has been identified. In the event of a consensus not being reached at Director level, decision making to be escalated to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in consultation with the Unitary Authority CEOs;

(2)   Allocated £5m of Investment Fund capital to create a Nature Recovery Fund;

(3)   Noted the intended receipt of the indicative allocation of £868,500 of Funding for Local Remediation Acceleration Plans revenue grant and noted that the receipt of the funding and acceptance of any terms and conditions accompanying the funding was subject to the final approval of the MCA’s Section 73 officer exercising her delegations under the Constitution;

(4)   Delegated the finalisation of the detail of the allocation and use of the Local Remediation Acceleration Plans funding, within the parameters of the grant conditions, to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority Director of Place in consultation with the equivalent Directors from the Unitary Authorities. In the event of a consensus not being reached at Director level, decision making to be escalated to the West of England MCA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in consultation with the Unitary Authority CEOs;

(5)   Noted the intended receipt of an indicative allocation of £200k of revenue funding from Homes England’s Markets, Partners and Places Directorate for 2026/27 and noted that the receipt of the funding and acceptance of any terms and conditions accompanying the funding would be subject to the final approval of the MCA’s Section 73 officer exercising her delegations under the Constitution;

(6)   Delegated the finalisation of the detail of the allocation and use of the £200k funding, together with future awards of Homes England funding to support the Strategic Place Partnership, within the parameters of the grant conditions, to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) Director of Homes and Regeneration in consultation with the Directors of Place of the Unitary Authorities. In the event of a consensus not being reached at Director level, decision making to be escalated to the West of England MCA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in consultation with the Unitary Authority CEOs;

(7)   Delegated authority to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority Executive Director of Transport, in consultation with the Unitary Authority Directors of Infrastructure, to enter into a grant funding agreement with First Bus through the Zero Emission Buses Regional Areas (ZEBRA2) award. In the event of a consensus not being reached at Director level, decision making to be escalated to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in consultation with the Unitary Authority CEOs;

(8)   Noted the updated work programme to utilise the Zero Emission Transport City (ZETC) funding, as set out in paragraph 31;

(9)   Delegated oversight of the ZTEC funding to the Executive Director of Transport in consultation with the equivalent Unitary Authority Directors. In the event of a consensus not being reached at Director level, decision making to be escalated to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in consultation with the Unitary Authority CEOs.