Agenda item - Greater Brighton Five Year Strategic Priorities

Report of the Chair, Greater Brighton Officer Programme Board

1)           That the Board agrees the recommendations made on page 11 of the Five Year Strategic Priorities paper, which can also be seen in 3.4 below.

2)           That the Board agrees to review a more detailed action plan outlining how these priorities will be delivered at the next Board meeting. 

3)           That the Board agrees the resourcing requirements be further developed and brought forward as part of the annual budget report to the next meeting of the Board.

4)           That the Board agrees to review progress against agreed priorities at least annually, and review new governance structures put in place.

21.1      The Board considered a report of the Chair, Greater Brighton Officer Programme Board that presented a draft set of priorities and recommendations and proposed changes to governance arrangements based on consultation with, and feedback from, Board Members.

21.2      Councillor Humphreys stated that whilst he supported the majority of the proposals and analysis of the report, he did not believe that the issue of transport was given sufficient priority as one of the biggest considerations of the Greater Brighton region. Furthermore, the Board had to be move aspirational and clear on its requests as a region.

21.3      The Chair agreed that the Board needed to deploy a strong voice and express its ambition and he would ask officers to build this in to the Strategic Priorities.

21.4      Councillor Lamb stated that transport was one of the biggest constraints for his local authority area adding that he welcomed the focus on social resilience as benefit to communities must be central to the work of the Board. Councillor Lamb explained that his residents were not willing to tolerate increases in air pollution, for example and political buy-in would be achieved by sharing the proceeds of growth.

21.5      Trevor Beattie praised officers for the draft adding that the Board should move quickly on the delivery plan and that could be achieved by each member owning area of work and leading on that.

21.6      Councillor Yates stated that the report was a good start adding that he was interested to hear the view of C2C and how the report fitted and enhanced their local industrial strategy.

21.7      Jonathan Sharrock praised the report that he found to be excellent method of articulating the Board’s role. He added that there would be two key workstreams over the next few years: an analysis of data for local authority’s and the region and the development of projects and the report was strong on the latter point. Jonathan Sharrock highlighted that the key challenge to the Board was avoiding over-complication at sub-regional level.

21.8      RESOLVED-

1)           That the Board agrees the recommendations made on page 11 of the Five Year Strategic Priorities paper, which can also be seen in 3.4 below.

2)           That the Board agrees to review a more detailed action plan outlining how these priorities will be delivered at the next Board meeting. 

3)           That the Board agrees the resourcing requirements be further developed and brought forward as part of the annual budget report to the next meeting of the Board.

4)           That the Board agrees to review progress against agreed priorities at least annually, and review new governance structures put in place.