HEREFORDSHIRE Council leaders say there were significant governance failures in the way the tendering process for the contract to build the first phase of the Hereford bypass was handled.

Senior councillors raised serious concerns over the way the South Wye Transport Package’s (SWTP) procurement and planning issues had been dealt with.

The £27m SWTP includes the proposals for the southern link road plans which aim to connect the A49 Ross road with the A465 Abergavenny road.

But infrastructure and transport cabinet member John Harrington told last night’s cabinet meeting (January 30) he was concerned with the evidence he has seen about the way projects have been handled.

“In particular, in relation to the South Wye transport issue, there are serious concerns over the way procurement and planning issues were progressed and not actually completed at this stage,” he said.

“I’m concerned we came in and had a project which was supposed to have been completed in 2018 and when we came in May 2019 the very first thing we were asked to do was try to preserve the planning permission the previous administration had failed to do.”

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The cabinet approved spending up to £451,000 on reviewing the city bypass and southern link road schemes.

But the road schemes were dealt a major blow this week as the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership cancelled the £27m funding agreement it had with the council for the southern link road.

The LEP now seeks to clawback £3.8m which it has already paid to deliver the project.

Liberal Democrat group leader Terry James said there was a great deal of anger with what is going on at the moment.

“In my part of the world the anger about the transport in Hereford is very very strong because a lot of people have to go through Hereford,” he said.

“I don’t think they will be comforted by the fact we are going to spend a further £360,000 on naval gazing.”

Former council chief and current Conservative group leader Jonathan Lester said the current administration’s delay had lost the funding for the link road.

“With the southern link road, we’ve already spent half a million pounds on figuring out it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

“With the Hereford transport package between 2016 and 2018 we spent £5.11m making sure it’s the right thing to do. The people of Herefordshire know it’s the right thing to do.

“You can’t underestimate the importance of the southern link road.

“It was the key route to our largest industrial and business park in Herefordshire.

“It was the first phase in a route which would address the congestion problem in Hereford that has regional consequences.

“This project would have made sure it opened up the land for further growth that this county desperately needs.

“We finally had a chance to get this bypass built and now we’ve lost the funding for the southern link road.”

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But councillor Liz Harvey said it was the previous Tory administration’s procurement failures which meant the road scheme couldn’t go ahead.

“It was your administration that threw all that money into a hole in the ground without properly making a budget available for the public or this council to see how you were spending it,” she said.

“It was your administration who, as the audit and governance committee had reported in September last year, had such significance governance failures in the way it handled the tendering contract for the South Wye Transport Package, that the council was not in a position to be assured that value for money would be delivered in letting it.

“It was your administration who did those things.

“We have inherited that from you and are now having to deal with it as well as addressing a climate change emergency which you have paid no attention to whatsoever.

“It’s unfortunate that given those delays, and failures, and errors and failures again to investigate, that we are looking to have to find alternative ways of spending that money while taking forward the aims and objectives that we’ve inherited.”