22 May 2008

The Regional Executive Board met on Thursday 22 May 2008 in York. Below is a summary of the discussion and decisions. The agenda, papers and approved minutes from this meeting are available to download below.

Eco Towns Consultation/RSS Publication

Members discussed details of, and issues raised, in the Government’s final version of the Regional Spatial Strategy (The Yorkshire and Humber Plan), published on May 21. Issues the Assembly had raised on greenhouse gas emissions and house building targets had been taken into consideration in the final document. This will now be the subject of an update to address new higher forecasts for housing provision, to be carried out by the Assembly over coming months.

Concerns were raised over the proposed housing numbers in a changing economic climate, along with the recent announcements over Eco-towns, which the Assembly had been asked to respond to. In particular, points of concern included infrastructure support, aspects of the Yorkshire and Humber Plan being contradictory to Eco towns’ proposals and the question of how self-sufficient Eco towns might be. It was agreed the Assembly should act as the support body for local authorities in drawing up individual responses, along with drawing together a collective regional response focusing on four issues - process, locations, sustainability and regional testing. For more details contact Chris Martin on 01924 331591, email Chris.martin@yhassembly.gov.uk.

Assembly Governance Arrangements

To help develop greater involvement in the Assembly’s scrutiny process, members agreed proposals to recommend the Assembly AGM support changes to allow individual Assembly members to nominate a deputy from their local authority/sector to be nominated to sit on the Scrutiny Board. For more details contact Iain Lovell on 01924 331583, email iain.lovell@yhassembly.gov.uk

Assembly Business Plan 2008/9

Executive Director Sue Jeffrey told members the final confirmation on the amount of grant we receive from Government and what we are expected to deliver for that funding had been received. The Business Plan has been drawn up based on Government support of £2,182,000 and Local Authority subscriptions of £222,000. For more details contact Sue Jeffrey on 01924 331561, email sue.jeffrey@yhassembly.gov.uk

Draft Financial Statement 2007/8

Details of the draft income and expenditure account were discussed by members, it was agreed that further clarification be sought from Government over any pension and other liabilities arising from the wind-up of the assembly. For more details contact Sue Jeffrey on 01924 331561, email sue.jeffrey@yhassembly.gov.uk