Lincolnshire County Council leader - still committed to devolution

Lincolnshire County Council leader Coun Martin Hill told the authority’s annual meeting on Friday it was “very important” and that they were hoping to tick all the boxes for the next round of devolution – expected sometime next year.“We’ve seen the legislation, we’re just waiting to see what the interpretation if that actually means,” he said.“We can move forward and achieve that devolution, we are in the final stages of coming up with a plan.“Hopefully, we’ll be able to say to the government where we are ticking all the boxes that they want to be one of the next round of devolution areas, and then we can move forward.“It’s very important, we all agree, that we need to make sure that Greater Lincolnshire is at the forefront of national thinking.”He said it was disappointing the councils had not been involved in the latest round of deals announced in February.Invites instead went to Cornwall, Derbyshire & Derby, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, Durham, Hull & East Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire & Nottingham, and Suffolk.Coun Hill said the latest rumour was that the next round would be in a year’s time.Greater Lincolnshire Enterprise Partnership is currently consulting with businesses on what they want from a devolution deal.In response to a later question around public consultation, Coun Hill said once the GLEP’s consultation was done they would share the proposals.However, he added: “With everybody through the appropriate mechanisms through the appropriate scrutiny.”However, he said: “It’s important that we just proceed a little bit of caution.”