A meeting was held yesterday (9 September 2019) to consider the call-in of the cabinet member decision on the Hereford Transport Package (HTP) and the South Wye Transport Package (SWTP).
The decision was made on 9 August 2019 by Cllr Harrington, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport, to pause all work on the HTP and SWTP to allow further time for the new council administration to review the schemes in more detail.
When any executive decision is made by Cabinet, a Cabinet member or officer, members can choose to ‘call-in’ the decision to examine the basis on which the decision was made. If this occurs the decision is not implemented and a scrutiny meeting is convened.
The committee yesterday referred the original decision back to the Cabinet member to reconsider, and recommended that in doing so:
The Cabinet member seeks clarification from the funders, of both the South West Transport Package and the Hereford Transport Package, of the funding implications of a review and ensure that both projects are not interdependent of each other.
Ongoing planned activity, programmed in to take place during the pause, continues while the review is under way.
The Cabinet member hosts a time limited series of ‘open days’ with Parish Councils, businesses and members of the public to ensure their views are taken into account on all of the evidence under consideration as part of the review.
That all council, and council contractors, contact databases, as far as is practicable, are kept up to date ahead of contacting members of the public.
Cllr Jonathan Lester, Chairman of the General Scrutiny Committee, said: “I was pleased that the committee had the opportunity to review the decision to pause the delivery of the projects. It was a thorough meeting and the resolutions of the committee made it clear that whilst it is important to think carefully about any projects it is also important to continue to undertake the necessary work should such key projects eventually go ahead.”
Cllr John Harrington, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport said: “There are many complex issues surrounding these schemes that need to be considered and it is very important that we can examine them thoroughly. I fully appreciate and commend the work of the Scrutiny committee. I respect the recommendations made, which I will consider and review in due course.
“We are keeping in contact with all individuals affected by the Hereford Transport Package and South Wye Transport Package to provide them with the latest information. Anyone affected by the schemes
