County councillors have called in Herefordshire Council roads chief’s decision to halt work on the city bypass.
Infrastructure and transport cabinet member John Harrington paused all work on the western relief road and southern link road last month and called for a review.
The It’s Our County councillor has authorised officers to scope the review work for the Hereford Transport Package and South Wye Transport Package to a maximum cost of £120,000.
But Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors have called in the decision which will be scrutinised at a meeting next week.
Their grounds for the call in include that there was inadequate consultation, there was inadequate evidence on which to base a decision and that the decision is disproportionate to the desired outcome.
They also say the decision-maker failed to consult with and take professional advice from all relevant officers and that the decision exceeded the cabinet member’s powers or terms of reference.
Conservative councillor Nigel Shaw said his group was concerned that the pause to works would result in the loss of a significant amount of public funding towards Herefordshire infrastructure.
“If the pause causes the loss or non-committal of future funding then any eventual positive decision will not be able to be delivered as there will be no government funding available,” he said.
“There has been a huge amount of public consultation carried out on the proposed roads and routes over the last ten years or so but this pause will potentially be instituted without any such consultation.”
The general scrutiny committee will consider the decision in light of the grounds and evidence for the call in.
If the committee is concerned about it, they may refer the decision back to the councillor Harrington to reconsider, setting out in writing their concerns.
The councillors who requested the call in are Conservatives Nigel Shaw, Roger Phillips, Elissa Swinglehurst, Tony Johnson, Barry Durkin, Mark Millmore, Kema Guthrie, Carole Gandy and Liberal Democrats Terry James, Polly Andrews, Paul Symonds and Kevin Tillett.
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