EMCCA still an ‘unnecessary’ authority says Reform leader

New Derbyshire County Council leader Alan Graves says he thinks the new East Midlands combined authority is still “unnecessary” – despite becoming a board member.

The Reform councillor is now part of the decision-making process at the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) after Reform’s win in the county at last month’s local elections.

A week after the party’s victory, Mr Graves was elected leader of Derbyshire County Council. This meant he was invited as a board member for the regional authority, which represents the leadership of Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council.

The new Reform leadership of Nottinghamshire County Council – leader Mick Barton and deputy leader John Doddy – have also taken up board member roles for the regional authority to represent how money should be spent in their area.

Local Democracy Reporter Nigel Slater detailed that, according to papers published a year ago, no allowances are given to board members – except for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor and a few other roles.

Last year, Councillor Graves, the former Derby mayor, entered the race to become the first East Midlands Mayor before losing out to Labour’s Claire Ward.

During his election campaign Cllr Graves said he wanted to “abolish” the position of Mayor if he was elected. He said he felt people did not want another layer of local democracy and feared it would cost taxpayers more in the long run.

But Cllr Graves was on the table when the first board meeting of the EMCCA was held at Pride Park Stadium on Monday (June 16). Speaking after the meeting he said he still had reservations about the authority despite his place on the table. 

He said: “I still think it (EMCCA) is an unnecessary body, but what you have to do when you are in politics is understand where it is important to be. I’m here representing Derbyshire, which must have a seat on the board otherwise there will be less investment in Derbyshire. I’m here because it is a duty.

“People know my opinion about the authority and it is not going to go away because the Mayor has been elected for five years. Nothing is going to change, so what I have to do is work with them.

“There’s a lot of good things it can do but I want to make clear this was being done anyway at Government level. We now have this role as East Midlands Mayor who is getting paid a lot of money as with the officers. The money spent on that bit should go into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.”

Cllr Graves also said he was not impressed with the way decision making was handled during the meeting – claiming there was too much “nodding” going on and not enough talking. 

He added: “Today (Monday) I’ve come to see what’s happening with the board and how it operates and I’m very disappointed that they (other members) were just nodding. I don’t like that. As you’ve seen everything just gets nodded through.

“When I get my teeth into it, I won’t be nodding. I think people should express their issues better. 

“This time last year, the Mayor had virtually no money, now she has huge amounts of money. Everybody is saying ‘yes that’s a good idea’ but it is whether we are spending that money right.”    

But a spokesperson for the authority says the region has seen billions of pounds of investment in the recent Spending Review, reflecting how important it is to have a regional combined authority in place.

The spokesperson said: “Working together across places is good for the region, and it is something we have done for a long time. EMCCA is a new way of doing this, with stronger democratic accountability through the directly elected Mayor. 

 “You will have seen the billions of pounds of investment into the East Midlands announced in the spending review: these investments are only as good as they are because we are working constructively through a Mayoral model.

“It is important for Councillor Graves to be at the EMCCA table, influencing how we work to benefit Derbyshire and the wider East Midlands, and we are glad that he is doing so.”