The Tees Valley Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) meeting at the TVCA Teesside Airport Business Suite isn’t the usual place to go for pyrotechnics, and nobody was expecting them on 6 November. But these are strange days.
Having put the excitement of Bonfire Night behind us, committee members, TVCA officers and a handful of procedure nerds such as myself settled in for the usual dull routine of minutes, agendas, committee papers and points of order. But there were quite a few absences, and the chair, Stockton councillor Steve Nelson, noted that there were only ten committee members present, the bare minimum to make a quorum. Steve jokingly suggested locking the doors to prevent anybody leaving, otherwise the meeting wouldn’t be able to continue. This was to prove prophetic nearly two hours later.
Bus Stop
And so the meeting commenced with some familiar run-of-the-mill stuff. Slow progress towards providing real-time information at bus stops, something taken for granted in other urban areas. Only 93 bus stops out of 5,000 in the Tees Valley have electronic displays, and even these only display timetable information, not the actual location of buses, and therefore when people can expect them to show up.
Tees Valley Independent Review (TVIR)
No fireworks here either. Recommendation 6 of the TVIR identified a lack of effective oversight of the TCVA by its committees, including the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Councillor Glyn Nightingale sought clarification of the powers of the committee to ‘call in’ TVCA decisions for review. TVCA Monitoring Officer Emma Simson reminded the committee that decisions can only be called in if they are unlawful or unconstitutional. It takes five committee members from at least three constituent local authorities to call in a decision, and it must be done within seven working days of the decision being published. Councillor Rachel Creevy asked that committee members be provided with up-to-date contact lists for other members in the event that any members may be considering the call-in of a decision. Only one TVCA decision has been called in by the committee to date, which may indicate that the process is cumbersome.
Strategic Economic Plan (SEP)
This was a Powerpoint presentation by TVCA Director of Infrastructure Tom Bryant. It was made publicly available after the meeting and can be found here. Tom’s presentation would eventually set off the firecrackers, but first let’s get across the details. The SEP is a ten-year plan covering the period from 2016 (the year that the TVCA was set up) to 2026. The plan was to create 25,000 additional jobs in the Tees Valley within this timescale. So how are we doing to date? Tom says that 10,000 jobs have been created since 2014. But, hang on a second, who mentioned 2014? The reference date is 2016, surely? Nobody picked this up, but Councillor David Branson commented that the TVCA has failed on this metric. But Tom has got his excuses in. We’ve had a pandemic, remember. And SSI closed Redcar steelworks with the loss of 3,000 jobs. But wasn’t that in 2015, before the TVCA even existed? And anyway, we’ve got another two years until 2026 to find the remaining 15,000 jobs. You can contrast Tom’s analysis with my own from August 2024, which confirmed that the TVCA’s job creation over seven years has been negligible.
Always look on the bright side of life
Tom then cited an optimistic report from estate agents Colliers and a ‘pipeline’ of Teesworks 10,378 jobs in next four years in ‘the Silicon Valley of Net Zero’. Tom omitted to mention that Colliers’ report was commissioned by joint venture partners Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney probably as part of their PR fightback against the TVIR recommendations. But we are talking about actual jobs achieved to date, Tom, not imaginary ‘pipelines’. Rachel Creevy expressed her concerns about a constant flow of outlandish job announcements from Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen. For example, in September, Teesworks will be the new ICI with 20,000 jobs. Setting the bar high here, mind. ICI employed 40,000 people. Or 7,000 jobs at Teesside Airport alone. Steve Nelson doesn’t understand why these announcements never include timescales, and often blur the distinction between temporary construction jobs and permanent ones.
Light the blue touch paper and stand well back
Steve suggested that the committee should form an employment sub-committee to investigate job creation, particularly in Teesworks, the flagship programme. In the interim, Tom Bryant has agreed to provide more data specifically related to Teesworks. Rachel Creevy suggested that the work of the education sub-committee could be paused to allow the OSC to focus on employment. Councillor Lynn Hall, a member of the education sub-committee, took umbrage at this suggestion, stood up and said that she was leaving the meeting. Steve reminded Lynn that to do so would render the committee inquorate, and could be interpreted as a deliberate act.
Call the fire brigade
TVCA statutory officers Guy Close and Emma Simson tried to assuage Lynn’s doubts. The TVCA could continue to work with her on these issues. Steve agreed with Lynn on the importance of education but stressed that, unless the Tees Valley attracts a lot more jobs, there won’t be money for anything, including education. Lynn stood up and threatened to leave for the second time, but was persuaded to re-take her seat.
Never return to a firework once it has been lit
Rachel Creevy couldn’t understand why Lynn had over-reacted to the suggestion of pausing the education sub-committee, at which point Lynn rose for the third time. But this time she carried out her threat and left the room. So, the committee was now inquorate. If only Steve Nelson had locked the doors. Emma Simson confirmed that the committee could still work through the rest of the agenda, but no votes could be taken. At this point, members of the public and the press were excluded from the meeting. It should be noted that Lynn Hall was a colleague of Ben Houchen when they were both Stockton-on-Tees councillors between May 2015 and May 2017, but there is no suggestion that Houchen was involved in a ‘gunpowder plot’ to prevent further discussion of his bogus job stats.
There’s no business like show business
Tripadvisor have already given this event their highest rating for any at the airport since the ill-fated Teesside Airshow in 2022, with the added bonus that nobody had to queue for four hours to get here.
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