My proposed Green Party plan for the West of England Combined Mayoral Authority

In May 2017 the first election will be held in the West of England Region areas of Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire for a Metro Mayor. The powers of the Metro Mayor working in conjunction with the Combined Mayoral Authority fall into four main areas.

1. Transport responsibilities for the region.
2. Housing – deciding where new homes will be developed and working to speed up developments directly and indirectly.
3. Skills - Controlling the Adult Education Budget and Apprenticeship grants.
4. Economic development – it had been anticipated that the Combined Mayoral Authority would have significant responsibility for the spending of EU money (!)

The headline budget figure for the Combined Mayoral Authority is circa £30 million per year. This will be dominated by capital expenditure.

My proposed Green Party Plan for the West of England Combined Mayoral Authority Region could include the following:

1. Currently the bus network is run by private operators with a damaging lack of public control. As Metro Mayor I would use the new powers in the Bus Service bill to fundamentally improve our bus services. That means setting up the right organizational model to achieve this, making the right recruitments and making the right policy and business model choices for bus service provision.
2. Work to introduce smart through-ticketing across different bus and rail operators enabling quicker joined-up journeys.
3. Use the capital expenditure programme for transport to ensure that the transport money is spent on the most appropriate and sustainable forms of transport. In the 2017-21 period, this is likely to include a high level of spend on light rail (Metrowest), potential Metrobus expenditure and overspends, cycle route infrastructure and lower cost road improvement schemes.
4. Propose twenty year plans for walking, cycling, buses, rail and road in the region with an emphasis on quickly developing ‘shovel ready’ sustainable transport routes.
5. Introduce clear air zones working in conjunction with affected local authorities.
6. Use the power of the Metro Mayor office to accelerate the building of genuinely affordable and sustainable homes, particularly on stalled sites. Campaign with the Local Government Association for Council tax to be charged on sites which have planning permission but have not been developed.
7. Use compulsory purchase orders to accelerate development and to ensure that the profit on sites with planning permissions is not unfairly biased towards private sector developers.
8. Use any economic development pot to support and promote the development of a circular economy and a low carbon sustainable future.
9. Finalise and sign off the new West of England Spatial and Transport Plans to 2030 covering development and transport.
10. Counter the severe cuts in local Council funding by moving some of the costs held at a local Council level to the new Combined Mayoral authority including some responsibilities in Planning, Transport, Housing and economic development. 

Friends of Suburban Bristol Railway overview of the future of local rail. December 2016