08:07 Friday 20th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
DOTTY MCLEOD: A deadline of next Friday has been set to reach an agreement on East Anglian devolution involving Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. This timescale was revealed in yesterday’s BBC devolution debate, organised by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Radio Norfolk and Radio Suffolk. In the meantime a former civil servant has told me he also believes that unnamed local partners suggested Cambridgeshire joins the devolution arrangement, not the Government. Antony Carpen says he reached this conclusion after submitting Freedom of Information requests to the Government.
ANTONY CARPEN: Well I asked whether there was any formal commission or any request to Cambridgeshire, and the answer was again no commission from Ministers or private office exists. I’ve asked them. They’ve stated local partners put forward the proposals. I’ve asked them further who were those local partners, where is the transparency in this? And as we heard in your debate earlier, many people are complaining about lack of transparency.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So the reason that could be significant is because we’ve always been told before that it was the Government who suggested adding Cambridgeshire to a Norfolk and Suffolk devolution plan. The Government saying in these answers to Freedom of Information requests that actually that’s not the case. Who are these ‘local partners’ who stepped forward and suggested Cambridgeshire join in? Lots of unanswered questions then, and just seven days to reach an agreement on this. Our Political Reporter Hannah Olsson has spoken to the head of the East Anglian Devolution Leaders’ Board Andy Wood.
ANDY WOOD: The timescales as they stand, we really ought to be going back to Government next Friday with a good bit of the deal done. Of course after that there are a number of processes that kick in that lead through the summer and then into the autumn. And if we do finally get a deal done, to mayoral elections in May ’17. But as you can see from the discussions today, we are some way away from that. But we are making progress.
HANNAH OLSSON: So what’s happening at the moment in the next couple of weeks? Lots of meetings I imagine.
ANDY WOOD: Yes there are a number of meetings. Of course there are lots of people behind the scenes, employed by county councils and district councils, who are doing lots of work. So there’s lots of stuff going on, in the anticipation that we probably will get a deal. So there will be a number of meetings in that timescale as well of course, because I have no decision making powers in this. This is for local leaders, leaders of their places, to ultimately reach agreement and carry forward to Government. And I’m happy to carry that forward to Government for them.
HANNAH OLSSON: You have got people that are from all sorts of different areas, trying to bring those together to find a bit of common ground. Difficult job?
ANDY WOOD: Well there is. There’s a clearly a sort of county county county council boundaries.(sic) So there’s Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk. That’s one dimension. There’s an urban rural dimension. So there’s much of East Anglia is rural. But we’ve got Cambridge, we’ve got Norwich, we’ve got Peterborough, we’ve got Ipswich. We’ve got towns like Bury St Edmunds. They have a different feel to them. And then of course there’s a different political complexion. So there’s quite a bit of complexity in all of that. But actually overall leaders are focusing on can they get the best deal for their place, and can they get the best deal for East Anglia.
HANNAH OLSSON: So what will you be taking back to leaders from today’s discussion?
ANDY WOOD: Well I suspect a number of them heard it live. I suspect a number have followed it on Twitter. So they probably know anyway, but of course I’ll be talking to them. The big message I think has been the lack of transparency and the lack of communication around this. Now you can’t carry out a negotiation in public of course, and that may have been the reason why there has been a bit of radio silence. But actually we need to step up the communication. There’s no doubt about that. And that’s a big message from today.
DOTTY MCLEOD: That’s our Political Reporter Hannah Olsson talking with the head of East Anglian Devolution Leaders’ Board Andy Wood, who is also the CEO of the Suffolk brewery Adnams. Now Clare King who lives in Cambridge raised several concerns on Twitter while listening to our three county debate yesterday. Morning Clare.
CLARE KING: Morning.
DOTTY MCLEOD: So certain aspects of the way these devolution plans are working out really trouble you. What in particular has made you angry?
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