4 October 2013
On 3rd October the Braintree Local Highways Panel (LHP) met at Causeway House Braintree.
The Panel is one of 12 across Essex made up of local councillors whose task it is to recommend local highways schemes for approval against a set budget provided by Essex County Council. In Braintree District the budget is supposed to be £815,578 as set out in the July 2013 Terms of Reference issued by Cllr. Bass, ECC Highways Cabinet Member. The Braintree LHP comprises 4 each of county, district and parish representatives.
The July 2013 new Terms of Reference (attached) were handed down by Cllr. Bass, without any consultation with the Braintree LHP. The Terms explicitly state that no press and public should attend the LHPs without the say so of the Cabinet Member.
Last night the Chairman of the Braintree LHP (Cllr. Walters) stated (several times) that the public and press were not allowed to attend (as per Cllr. Bass's Terms of Reference issued in July) but at the same time said the public could attend if they were "asking questions".
Cllr. James Abbott, a district and county councillor and Member of the Braintree LHP said
"So presumably if a member of the public turned up to observe the meeting but not ask questions they would be prevented from sitting in the room ?
It was pointed out to Cllr. Walters that the head of the agenda states "THIS MEETING IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC".
This situation is not only farcical, it could be in breach of the Government's 2012 regulations designed to bring "greater openness and transparency into meetings". Those regulations define what should be a public meeting."
Schemes not being delivered and budget uncertain
Of the 59 approved and funded 2012/13 schemes from the Braintree LHP, only 19 have been completed and 5 have been cancelled, a completion rate of less than a third from last years schemes. None of the completed schemes are significant capital build schemes.
For 2013/14 schemes, it appears from the meeting last night that the budget figure has been withdrawn - despite only being issued in July. There was no item on the agenda detailing the budget - for example stating how much had been spent to date and how much was left.
Several members of the Panel asked about this at the previous meeting and last night's meeting. The Chair failed to give a direct answer.
What Cllr. Walters would say was that "we will have to see whats available" and sidestepped requests for an agenda item on the budget for the next meeting in January.
Cllr. James Abbott said
"This is completely unacceptable and appears to be some sort of understanding between the Chair and Cllr. Bass which the rest of the Panel have not been party to nor had a written briefing on.
We were therefore last night potentially approving schemes with a very uncertain prospect for delivery. I believe this is not only potentially misleading to local communities but may also be ultra vires. Last year when Cllr. Finch was chairing we had a clear budget which we worked to each and every meeting - he made a point of always saying how much we had spent and had left to spend.
Given that two thirds of last years schemes are left to be delivered, we are again staring at a potential huge capital underspend in ECC Highways. It was the largest capital underspend of any department in 2012/13, totaling over £4 million countywide."
There was also confusion about the status and description of a number of schemes. Some schemes that had been submitted by Parish Councils had just disappeared from the lists of schemes for consideration without any consultation with the affected parishes.
Other schemes keep being wrongly described, despite corrections being asked for.
Cllr. James Abbott has suggested (which has not been taken up) that each scheme is placed on the web where Panel Members and officers can view them - there are 3 months between meetings to be able to do this.
Comments were made at the meeting last night from ECC Members that there is not the resource available to draw up schemes to full design stage - which would explain the lack of progress on the more major schemes.
Cllr. Abbott suggested to Cllr. Bass some weeks ago that the Panel vire 10% of in year budget to retain 2 additional highway engineers to work specifically on the local scheme backlog. He refused.
Cllr. Abbott concluded
"We don't for a minute blame the LHP officers at all in this - they are clearly under a lot of pressure. Some are trying to cover more than one district which is a near impossible task given the number of schemes.
We blame Cllr. Bass and his colleagues at County Hall. Every suggestion to improve the situation is rejected and now a budget he himself issued in July is in doubt.
The Local Highways Panels were trumpeted as a good example of localism. They should be able to get on with the job of recommending schemes such as zebra crossings and safer footways for the benefit of local communities. It is beyond belief that just half way through the year we are told that effectively that budget is no longer viable."
Donate
Follow us on Twitter
Witham and Braintree Green Party RSS Feed