THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has become the final council in south east Wales to confirm its involvement in the £1.229 billion Cardiff Capital Region City Deal.

Councillors voted by 34 to five in favour of the deal, the Vale will agreed to contribute to the £120million pot, a total shared between all 10 councils in a “joint working agreement”.

Councillors agreed their involvement at a special full council meeting at the Civic Offices, in Barry last week.

Each council’s individual contribution is based on the area's population and the Vale council has agreed to contribute £12.9million over a 25 year period.

The deal commits the Vale council to working with Cardiff council and eight other south east Wales local authorities to develop infrastructure - particularly the new South Wales Metro transport system - with the help of government grants and private finance.

If all 10 councils fail to agree to the business plan and funds are committed, the authority then has to pay funds back.

The deal includes a £734 million Metro Scheme Fund consisting of £503 million Welsh Government funding, over the first seven years of the investment fund, £106 million from the European Development Fund and £125 million from the UK government.

Vale Council leader, councillor Neil Moore outlined the deal to councillors saying that the 10 authorities would collectively contribute £120m to the fund and the City of Cardiff would act as the accountable body.

Plaid Buttrills ward Cllr Ian Johnson said he had “quite strong reservations about the scheme”.

Sully Independent councillor, Kevin Mahoney said transport was the responsibility of the UK and Welsh Governments and the franchise operators rather than the local authorities and that Wales should already be provided with decent transport links.

Deputy leader, Cllr Lis Burnett rebuffed critics who were “focused solely on making sure we had big enough slice of the cake.”

She asked councillors to “adopt a more abundant mentality where we all work together to make a bigger cake so we all get some,” adding: “If the City Deal succeeds, we all succeed.”

The deal will be ratified with a formal signing by the 10 authority leaders at Cardiff Airport on Wednesday, March 1.

The local authorities involved are Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Torfaen, and the Vale.