Dave Thomas: Bringing you new jobs, skills and public transport

On Wednesday this week, 19 March, the first Board meeting of the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority was taking place.

This is following the Statutory Instrument being made in Parliament last month and Government signing the legislation that means devolved decision-making powers and funding has now been passed from Whitehall to us as local decision-makers in Devon and Torbay. 

Our journey towards this Combined County Authority started three years ago in 2022, when the then Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove committed Government to Devolution and working with a strong partnership of councils on the detail of deal. It’s been great that we can now start to move forward with progressing our ideas with these new powers. 

The Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority will be focussing on the priorities of building more affordable homes, investing in new quality jobs, skills and improving public transport. It will also have direct control of adult education to create up to 50,000 new training and retraining opportunities by 2030. 

Membership of the Combined County Authority is made up of elected Councillors from both Torbay and Devon Councils, representatives from the District Councils and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall. Representatives of two of the CCA’s advisory groups – business, and skills and employment – sit on the Board as well.   

This first meeting, which you can now watch on the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority YouTube Channel, included appointing the Chair and Vice Chair of the Board and setting the Governance structure and constitution. I am glad to say that I have been elected in as Chair for the first two years, with Cllr James McInnes, Leader of Devon County Council, the Vice Chair.  

On this week’s agenda was an update on the £16m capital funding that was awarded to the CCA from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as part of the devolution deal.  

This funding will go towards supporting 16 schemes which includes delivery of local housing priorities, drives the Net Zero ambitions for the County and support around green skills.

Torbay has received £2m towards our Hotels to Homes project, which is progressing well. In fact, Torbay’s Planning Committee approved the go-ahead for 14 self-contained homes on the site of the former Brampton Court Hotel in St Luke’s Road South earlier this month. 

South Devon College will also receive £1.5m to expand their Green Skills and Energy centre which is based in Paignton. 

Also on the agenda, was agreeing the plan for spending the next allocation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which totals just over £4million.

With the previous allocation, 74 projects received funding across both council areas, which supported local businesses, boosted opportunities for local people and created spaces for communities to enjoy. 

The Board will be meeting every two months and as more decisions are made, I will share them in this column.

You can see all the agendas and minutes for this Board and future meetings at www.devon.gov.uk/democracy. As mentioned earlier, they will all be live on the CCA’s YouTube channel. 

I now have a date for your diary. Next month, on Saturday April 12, we will be celebrating Torquay’s most famous daughter, Agatha Christie, with the unveiling of a magnificent new bronze statue in her honour.   

The specially commissioned tribute, funded through the Town Deal Funding, was created by Brixham artist Elisabeth Hadley. Elisabeth’s design was chosen following a public vote, after five artists were shortlisted following a public call out in September 2021. The statue will be placed and unveiled at Torquay’s newly created harbourside area.  

The unveiling ceremony will be complemented by live performances, a family friendly ‘who done it’ mystery trail, literary walks, and a print workshop at Torquay Library which is open to all ages and abilities.   

It will be great to see you there.