Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Background

In order to create a combined authority the local authorities in the proposed combined area must undertake a governance review and produce a scheme of their proposals. The six local authorities in this case are Halton Borough Council, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Liverpool City Council, Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council and Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. They are the five metropolitan borough councils of Merseyside and the unitary authority of the adjacent Borough of Halton. The Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority and Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership also supported them.

Development and formation

The governance review explored four options for the strategic governance of Liverpool City Region. They were status quo/do nothing; a supervisory board; an economic prosperity board; or a combined authority. It concluded that the establishment of a combined authority would improve the "alignment, coordination and delivery of economic development and transport related initiatives" and "the decision making process will become faster and more efficient".

The scheme was published on 30 September 2013. It proposed a combined authority comprising seven members - one from each constituent local authority, and one more from Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership. The combined authority, specifically through its transport committee, replaces the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority. The Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive remains as the transport executive organisation and is formally named Merseytravel.

Naming

The proposed authority was known as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority throughout the development process and was the name submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, the government published scheme used the name 'Greater Merseyside Combined Authority'. The government consultation that followed showed strong support for a name that included 'Liverpool' and not 'Merseyside'. The name was changed to Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral Combined Authority in the draft order presented to parliament. This was chosen by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) because it said the local authorities could not agree a name for the combined authority and some responses to the consultation objected to the name 'Liverpool'. An explanatory memorandum attached to the orders creating the combined authorities stated that any name including 'City Region' was considered "misleading and inappropriate" by the government. DCLG stated that the combined authority could use any public name it wanted. On 21 February 2014 it was decided by the constituent councils that the authority will use the public name of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. A motion at the inaugural meeting on 1 April 2014 proposed that the authority should adopt the name Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and this was passed unanimously.

Membership

The membership of the combined authority is as follows:

Leadership

Joe Anderson was appointed chair on 18 December 2015 after the resignation of Phil Davies. Barrie Grunewald was appointed deputy chair on 19 June 2015.

Leadership dispute

The long-term future of the new authority was left in doubt after Joe Anderson decided to seek legal advice on Liverpool City Council leaving, following his failure to be elected as its chair. Anderson was not present during the leadership vote. Other members said he allowed his personal ego and his belief he had a "God given right to chair the authority" to put it in jeopardy. Members were also concerned about the reputational damage that Anderson's actions were having on the Merseyside region. The future of the authority appeared more secure following a statement by Anderson on 7 April 2014, where he made clear that the matter that caused the dispute is "closed" and that Liverpool would remain in the combined authority.

The authority is to have a directly elected mayor in May 2017 The election was won by Steve Rotheram.

Committees

The authority consists of several committees. Other than the Merseytravel Committee on transport matters which is detailed in the constitution and the Authority itself it is also has an Audit Committee and a Scrutiny Panel.

Merseytravel Committee

The Merseytravel Committee acts as the transport authority, with Merseytravel as the executive agency.