North Northamptonshire Council votes to back plans to join forces with councils from Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire and form a South Midlands devolved partnership

The Government has made no secret of its support for combined authorities – groups of two or more councils that take powers from central Government into regional hands. Such arrangements are already in place in ten areas including Liverpool, Manchester and Tees Valley.

The report, written by council officers, urged the council to become part of the South Midlands Authorities’ Joint Committee, one step below a combined authority.

North Northamptonshire Council is already part of the Central Area for Growth Board along with five other councils: Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Milton Keynes and West Northamptonshire.

The CAGB involves the leaders of all participating councils but does not have executive decision-making powers.

However, discussions have started on different options for the future of the CAGB.

At its board meeting last month the council leaders collectively expressed a preference for a ‘joint committee model’ to be developed which would have decision-making powers.

A report led by NNC leader, Cllr Jason Smithers, informed the council of initial discussions on joint working between the South Midlands Authorities and sought council approval on the establishment of a South Midlands Authorities’ Joint Committee.

After the report was presented at Thursday’s (August 28) meeting, councillors were given the opportunity to share their views on the matter and share their concerns.

Cllr Jim Hakewill (Ind) expressed dismay at the leader of the council’s lack of communication with other councillors.

He said: “We pay these executive members good allowances to go out to these other authorities and come back and tell us what’s going on - nothing has come forward.

“The leader has been to five of these meetings but has come back to us with nothing - but we’ve got two weeks to make our minds up on this.

“There’s absolutely no scrutiny gone on. A year/two years ago this could have come through scrutiny so that we are all involved in what’s going on here - not being bounced two weeks before that particular decision is supposed to be made - it typifies this administration's approach to scrutiny.

“What conversations has this board leader had with Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland? They are our neighbours, we share a long boundary with them, they’re not in the East Midlands combined authority, so what discussions have been had there?

“At the end of the day, as far as this item is concerned, we have been sadly let down by the leader who goes away, leaves us in the dark, doesn’t use the executive presentations to tell us what’s going on, and we end up tonight trying to make a decision with no financial data and nothing else, and it’s going to affect our residents massively.”

Cllr Martin Griffiths (Ind) was also unable to back the recommendations in the report. He said: “As a former board member of SEMLEP and an active participant in the EEH discussions and initiatives for a long time, I really miss the previous joint working arrangements that we had as sovereign councils along with the regional business and sectors and councillors and leaders like Hazel Simmons and Pete Marland was a real education.

“One thing we should have learned in the past four years is that bigger isn’t already better and I am very concerned, as I was back then, that this area will end up with a disproportionate number of low paid jobs, more huge warehouses, tens of thousands more houses and little in the way of infrastructure.”

The leader of the North Northamptonshire Labour Group, Cllr Matt Keane, was largely supportive of the item but called for cross party engagement. He said: “It’s important, especially given our current electoral cycle, that group leaders are heavily involved in this.

“This is why I want the leader of the council to establish a working group where the other two opposition parties of the council are informed and updated alongside our local MPs.

“All councillors need to have the detail of these proposals as we will all be making some seriously big decisions. I would like a members briefing to be set up, just taking us to an Executive Advisory Panel won’t be enough to get the buy in from everyone.

“I’d also like to know if the future paper for the terms of the joint committee will include cross party representation at council level or will it be likely to just be the leader of the authority.

“Hopefully this could lead to an ambitious devolution deal that benefits all our residents, but it’s important that the communication and the scrutiny is there.”

The idea for a working group was backed by the leader of the Green Alliance, Cllr Emily Fedorwycsz. She said: “My big query or concern is the fact that the leader and deputy will be on the panel but we’re a democratic system but there’s no democratic representation on the board, so my big query is how will the views of the other parties be fed in?

“I really love Cllr Keane’s proposal for the working group, I think that’s one potential great way to consider how to do this.

“This committee has already been meeting for some time and the minutes were incredibly difficult to find, I think we need to have some transparency on what’s been discussed.

“There’s not really been any other options offered up for alternative groupings of the local authorities, such as fewer authorities together. The size of the partnership is something that I think will potentially be a detriment.

“This has got some scope for us to progress but I would like to have some clarity on both of those points.”

Addressing the concerns of the other councillors, the leader of North Northamptonshire Council, Cllr Jason Smithers (Cons), said: “I will certainly make sure that North Northamptonshire Council is heard loud and clear at that table.

“I’m quite happy today, as a gesture of how open we are about this, that we alter the recommendation 3.1b to include the group leaders in a discussion with myself so that we can keep you updated and also run a devolution members update as well.

“This is just about us being at the table, to ensure that we get the absolute best deal for our residents here in North Northamptonshire and to be able to embrace some of those exciting changes that could be coming down the road with this speeded up devolution process that your government has put in place.”

In a direct response to Cllr Hakewill and his concerns, Cllr Smithers said: “This is a fast moving process on the back of the new government's agenda, so we are trying to do things as quickly as possible, we’re not going to be able to do anything until we put the expression of interest in. It is an expression of interest only.

“There’s not a lot to be scrutinised on this yet, happy though for it to go through all the checks and balances that council has to protect us, protect the taxpayers, protect our residents, protect everything that we do at this council. So when that comes up and officers feel that scrutiny or some other audit process is required, happy to attend that and speak about it.”

The vote to back the proposal passed with 50 votes in favour, four abstensions, and two votes against.