Issue - meetings

That the Committee considered and noted the Quarter 2 Performance.

The Chief Officer (Planning Environment and Economy) presented the mid-year performance report from the Economic Ambition Board and he reminded members of the introductory session held in early autumn last year.   The Economic Ambition Board had £240m worth of capital (£120m from Welsh Government (WG) and £120m from UK Government) to spend across five programmes, which were Digital, Low Carbon Energy, Land and Property,  Agri- Food and Tourism and High Value Manufacturing. The five programmes were rated as amber in terms of progress and he provided detailed information on the Bodelwyddan project which had been withdrawn with £10m going back into the Ambition Board funds.   He provided an update on the Road Review, which was now awaited in 2023, the Western Gateway and the Warren Hall development.  He hoped the Programme Officer for Land and Property would be able to attend the March meeting and bring the other Programme Officers to future meetings.

            In response to questions from Councillor Mike Peers the Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) firstly referred to the private sector investment question and confirmed that this was constantly being reviewed and had been flagged as an Amber risk.  The Programme Office accepted that more engagement with the private sector was required.

            In response to the question on whether any of the projects were at risk, he said the answer was no, but that this was also being kept under review.

            Referring to the Roads Review question in relation to the Warren Hall site the Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) did not understand why an internal road  on a Welsh Government site had been included in the scope of the Roads Review.

            Moving to the 440 jobs point, he was confident that the Warren Hall site  could deliver these jobs, especially with the release of the land for housing.

            Finally referring to the high-end manufacturing point the Chief Officer (Planning Environment & Economy) outlined how the optical technology was identified together with the green technologies and described what technologies were also being promoted.

            Councillor Dave Healey said what the six Councils had achieved working together within the North Wales Growth Deal and Ambition North Wales to secure  funding and identify such positive projects was remarkable.  He reported on a visit to the impressive Digital Signal Processing Centre at Bangor which was funded by this initiative.   He was pleased to see so many low carbon green energy projects, especially within the agri-food and tourism sectors which was good for rural communities.

The recommendations in the report were moved and seconded by Councillors  Mike Peers and Richard Lloyd.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee considered and noted the Quarter 2 Performance.