Agenda and decisions

To receive any apologies for absence.

To receive any declaration of Personal Interest.

To elect a Vice-Chair for 2026/27.

Cllr Gary Pritchard was elected as Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee for 2026/27.

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chair for consideration.

The Chair shall propose that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 19 of June, 2026 be signed as a true record.

Mark Watkins, Monitoring Officer to present the report.

The Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 in Annex 1 was approved as the statement of the Joint Corporate committee on internal control for the purposes of Regulation 5 of the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations 2014 (as amended).

The Governance Improvement Plan for 2026/27 contained in the Statement was noted and approved.

To authorise the Chair and the Chief Executive to sign the Annual Governance Statement.

Dewi A. Morgan, Head of Finance (CJC’s Statutory Finance Officer) and Sian Pugh, Assistant Head of Finance to present the report.

To consider and approve the ISA 260 report by Audit Wales for the CJC.

To consider and approve the CJC's Final Statement of Accounts (post-audit) for 2025/26.

Dewi A. Morgan, Head of Finance (CJC’s Statutory Finance Officer) and Sian Pugh, Assistant Head of Finance to present the report.

Resolved:

·        To note and accept the revenue end of July 2026 review for the CJC (Appendix 1), including a maximum of £39,874 to be transferred from the reserve (in addition to the £624,590 that was approved in the 2026/27 budget) to leave a neutral position (with the final figure to be confirmed when the 2026/27 out-turn report is presented).

·        To note and accept the revenue and capital end of July 2026 review for the Growth Deal (Appendix 2), including the reserves position (Appendix 3).  

·        To note and accept the Growth Deal’s revised capital expenditure profile (Appendix 4). 

·        To note and accept the revenue end of July 2026 review for the Investment Zone (Appendix 5), including the use of the interest on Investment Zone balances to leave a neutral position for 2026/27. 

·        To note and accept the revenue end of July 2026 review for the RSP (Appendix 6).

·        To approve the virements for the CJC, Growth Deal and Investment Zone budgets noted in Appendix 7.

Dewi A. Morgan, Head of Finance (CJC’s Statutory Finance Officer) to present the report.

To provide guidance to officials on the CJC's appetite towards the use of reserves when preparing the budget for 2026/27.

To ask officers to provide a hybrid option using 80% of the estimated usable reserves available at 31 March 2027 as a basis, which would mean presenting an option that falls between option 3 and option 4 to Members at the next meeting of the CJC.

Adam Graham, Senior Transport Officer to present the report.

To delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Chair of the Strategic Transport Sub-Committee, the Monitoring Officer, the Chief Finance Officer and relevant local authority transport leaders, to approve and submit regional change requests to the Welsh Government in respect of the in-year management of the Regional Transport Fund.

It was noted that the Welsh Government will continue to make the final grant decisions in relation to the Regional Transport Fund.

Alwen Williams, Chief Executive to present the report.

As the meeting was no longer quorate, it was resolved to postpone the decision.

Alwen Williams, Chief Executive and Programme SRO and Dave Hole, Programme Lead to present the report.

As the meeting was no longer quorate, it was resolved to postpone the decision.

Helen Edwards, Deputy Monitoring Officer to present the report.

As the meeting was no longer quorate, it was resolved to postpone the decision.

Helen Edwards, Deputy Monitoring Officer to present the report.

As the meeting was no longer quorate, it was resolved to postpone the decision.

Mark Watkins, Monitoring Officer to present the report.

Appendix 2 is separate for Members only.

The Appendix is exempt under Paragraph 12, Part 4, Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (information relating to a particular individual); subject to paragraph 21, Part 5 (public-interest test). Applied to the CJC by regulation 26 of the Corporate Joint Committees (General) (No. 2) (Wales) Regulations 2021.

As the meeting was no longer quorate, it was resolved to postpone the decision.