Agenda and minutes

The following members made a declaration of interest at the commencement of the meeting:

Councillor M.Harvey              Re the Swansea Bay City Deal Infrastructure Project as he is a member of the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor S.Freeguard         Re the Swansea Bay City Deal Infrastructure Project as she is a member of the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Scrutiny Committee

Councillor A.Llewelyn            Re the Swansea Bay City Deal Infrastructure Project as he is a member of the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Scrutiny Committee

·         2 September 2020

·         17 September 2020

That the minutes of the following meetings be approved:

·        2 September 2020

·        17 September 2020

·        To select appropriate items from the Cabinet agenda for pre-decision scrutiny (cabinet reports enclosed for Scrutiny Members)

The Committee was provided with a short presentation which gave a strategic overview of the digital infrastructure project of the Swansea Bay City Deal; this particular programme of work and proposed investment was in relation to the connectivity of the region, including Neath Port Talbot. It was clarified that the investment would include full fibre fixed connectivity, the associated infrastructure to support it and mobile connectivity, primarily 4G, 5G and Internet of Things advanced wireless networks.

Officers explained that it was a £55 million programme spread over 5 years; £25 million of the total was City Deal funding and the other £30 million was to be brought in from the private and public sectors. It was highlighted that the public sector contributions were not local contributions, instead they were estimated to come from national competitions and funding streams. In relation to the private sector contributions, it was noted that it would be leveraged in as part of the various procurement exercises conducted; the private sector were conservative in terms of the financial targets and Officers stated that they did not foresee any issues in meeting those targets.

The presentation detailed the delivery of the proposed project across three work streams which included rural, next generation wireless and connected places; the project would deliver connectivity in various forms and locations across those three work streams:

·        Rural – investment in rural connectivity, ultimately a number of interventions to support the most rural communities and badly served communities e.g. demand stimulation, promotion of existing funding streams for people to exploit and supporting residents, communities and businesses

·        Next generation wireless – seed funding to attract future 5G and 4G+ coverage for certain areas where prudent and some advanced wireless networks to facilitate all sorts of used cases the region would seek to fund e.g. driverless cars and SMART manufacturing. The diversity of the region offers numerous opportunities to prove and deliver the use of 5G for the future

·        Connected places – investment in full fibre broadband and full fibre networks across the urban parts of the region particularly Port Talbot, Neath, Swansea and Llanelli

Members noted the main reasons as to why the project was taking place which was split into problems to solve and opportunities to exploit, and how working together with Welsh and UK Governments, telecoms industries and regional partners and stakeholders would help to make a difference.

Some of the problems to solve included:

·        Extremely limited full fibre coverage (only 2.6% of Neath Port Talbots premises, business and homes had full fibre broadband); intend to use the projects finances to leverage as much connectivity as possible

·        22,000 homes across the region who struggled to access even a 30MB per second quality of internet provision; intend to reduce this number significantly

·        Distinct lack of supplier competition, which is one of the reasons why the region wasn’t well served in terms of connectivity; intend to change this by working with industry and utilise the finances to attract competition to make sure reliable, sustainable  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.