Agenda item

Members asked questions of Portfolio Holders in accordance with Procedure Rules 8.1 and 8.2 as follows:

·         Councillor Gerstner stated that he has been extensively lobbied and communicated with about the Ralph Butcher Causeway, with a letter having been circulated by Alex Beckett, Chair of Highways and Transport at the County Council to say that there is a contractual dispute between the County Council and the contractor. He asked will this hold up even more the non-information or very little information that is coming through at the moment and does this start to look a little bit like the guided bus way affair that the County Council had issue with the contractor many years ago and asked for any update. Councillor Boden responded that it has been remarkable how little public information has become available in the last three weeks about what has been happening in Whittlesey and those that do not live in Whittlesey will not be aware of the sheer chaos that there has been for the around 6 months, particularly in the last few weeks because of restrictions on the Ralph Butcher Causeway. He referred to Alex Beckett’s letter, which he was not going to comment on until at least between Christmas and New Year as it is important that the current situation is sorted, but he was surprised to read the letter which tried to bring party politics into the subject and made reference to something which he understood was not supposed to be mentioned but given that Alex Beckett is the Chairman of the Transportation and Highways Committee at the County Council and he has made reference to it he now also feels able to make reference to it. Councillor Boden stated that after the current administration came into power at County Council there was a catastrophic failure of the bridge supports, this was before any bridge had been put on top of the supports, and action was taken at that time to change the design of the bridge and supports so that if the whole of Fenland were to be devasted by a Comet hitting it the one thing that would stay up would be those bridge supports. He continued that this is not what should really have happened at that time, which was a better questioning of why did that catastrophic failure happen and it is possible that if that had been looked at by the County Council administration at that time thoroughly they may have found there was an underlying problem which may be the same as the underlying problem that there is now with the support of the embankment right next to those bridge supports. Councillor Boden expressed the view that it may be when all of this finally comes out and what has caused the problems that currently exist there may have been a missed opportunity in 2021 because there was a real warning sign that perhaps ground conditions were such that it was inadvisable to continue the way it went. He is saying perhaps as he honestly does not know what the position is and no one does but what has happened is that given the issues that have been found, the cracks which have been found in the carriageway which are not explained and which are not immediately a safety matter but could be so the County Council has acted correctly with being cautious in blocking off one of the two carriageways and instituting temporary traffic lights. Councillor Boden stated that given that this is the case what has happened is that the contractor, with whom there is a contractual dispute, has brought in a boring machine to bore 6 holes 20-25 cm in diameter and to a depth of 12 metres into the embankment and has taken 12 separate 1 metre samples from each of those 6 holes, which are now the subject of analysis but it is not known how long this will take, how long it will take to get any answers and whether the answers will be released in the short term. He stated that given the horrendous lack of information that has been received over the last few weeks, he spoke to the Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire County Council to say that it was not acceptable for people in Whittlesey to be kept in the dark about what is happening and he agreed that he should speak to the Director of Highways at the County Council and he has a meeting tomorrow afternoon to go through what the current situation is, what can be revealed to the local people and what the prognosis is. Councillor Boden added that the one thing he fears he cannot say is how long this is going to carry on as it is not a reasonable question for him to expect an answer to at this time but there are a whole host of things, including the way in which the traffic lights are being operated at the moment, what is happening with the B1040 and what alternatives there may be if it is necessary to have major works undertaken on the bridge. He agreed with Councillor Gerstner that the amount of official information which has been coming out from day one of this issue has been poor and in the last 3-4 weeks it has been virtually non-existent, which is not acceptable as people are at their wits end at the delays which they suffer and if action can be taken by the County Council to reduce those delays it needs to be taken. Councillor Gerstner thanked Councillor Boden for his comprehensive response, which has hopefully informed residents a little more and that further answers will come from the meeting he has tomorrow.

·         Councillor Clark made that point that 5-6 years ago it was announced that Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) would be introduced in Fenland and there was the backing from the entire Council as he does not think there is any councillor who does not receive complaints about inconsiderate parking. He stated that a good start was made but it seems to have stalled, with the Combined Authority coming up with its £150,000 towards the scheme which the Council must be in danger of losing if it is not drawn down and Fenland’s share of £500,000 could easily have been met by considerable windfalls of the Horizon money and the 2-year unexpected grants towards the IDB payments. Councillor Clark stated that March Broad Street is now going to be cluttered up with 42 bollards to try and stop inconsiderate parking, which, in his view, is unlikely to work. He asked if the Council had given up trying to introduce CEP in Fenland and if not, when is it going to happen? Councillor Mrs French agreed that CPE was started in 2019, all was going well until there was a change of administration at the County Council, with the original costs being £325,000 which meant that Fenland would have to pay for all the new lines, signs, etc., and over the years these costs have risen to around £1 million, which is not sustainable. She stated that she has argued repeatedly with County Council that it is not up to the District Council to maintain lines and this Council was also told that the County Council wanted it to maintain them in perpetuity but finally it was agreed that this is not this Council’s job. Councillor Mrs French stated that there are over a thousand lines and signs that are incorrect and apart from the financial side, the County Council officers are putting unrealistic conditions on local service agreements. She made the point that CEP has not been discounted, the money will be found somewhere but it is just a case of not just the money but the conditions which this Council does not want to be burdened with forever. Councillor Mrs French agreed that the parking in March is appalling, arrangements were made through MATS that 42 bollards are going to have to be erected to stop people parking, with there being enough car parking for taxis and disabled people. Councillor Clark asked if there was any indication when this was going to happen? Councillor Mrs French responded that it will be after the election as it is stalemate with the current Rainbow Alliance County Councillors and hopefully with a change of administration dialogue can be reopened.

·         Councillor Roy referred to the new Planning Policy Framework being published and asked for an indication of how long it will take for the new Local Plan to be introduced? Councillor Mrs Laws responded that the Framework has only just been published, she has had a meeting with officers this afternoon and she has been reading through it but it is a little early to give a confident answer. She stated that the Council is very focused on bringing the emerging Local Plan forward but this has thrown ‘a spanner in the works’ so there will be a need to revisit a couple of areas, conversations are also being held with neighbouring councils regarding policy and there are a couple of lines in the Framework that require clarification.

·         Councillor Clark stated that when he was a County Councillor he attended meetings on the Whittlesey bridge with Ralph Butcher on several occasions and at such time Kier Construction were a preferred builder for this scheme but they saw many difficulties with it and withdrew and then the County Council went with a cheaper operator to deliver the scheme. He feels it may be worth asking at Councillor Boden’s meeting why did they not go with Keir or why did they not take any notice of the expected problems they could see? Councillor Boden responded there is, as the Chairman of the Highways Committee at the County Council has now revealed, a contractual dispute between the County Council and Jonas Brothers, with the dispute being about who is responsible for the catastrophic column slippage in July 2021, what caused it and who pays for all the additional costs which were involved with it. He stated that he does not know the answer but it could be to do with ground conditions, the design, materials or the build and these are the four options he can see but there may be others and each of those four will point in a different direction as to who will be responsible in terms of the additional costs for that failure in July 2021. Councillor Boden expressed the opinion that if it turns out that the same cause is also responsible for the embankment problem that exists now then the numbers involved in that dispute will be many more times bigger than they are currently but he does not know which of the parties is responsible as that is a technical question with a technical answer and he does not have that expertise. He expressed the view that he does not think it will be constructive in his meeting tomorrow to start going into the past about who was responsible for what at what time partly because that is part of what this legal dispute is all about and tomorrow his concern is about what residents in Whittlesey are facing on a daily basis and how it can be managed in the short term to ameliorate some of the problems being faced at the moment and to give some answers about what might be happening in the medium term rather than the short term so practical questions to get some practical answers on how to improve the position that people in Whittlesey are facing, especially whilst the B1040 is closed. Councillor Boden stated that the questions raised by Councillor Clark are ones that will have to be answered eventually but he would be wasting the opportunity of trying to improve the day-to-day position of residents in Whittlesey if he was to delve into those questions tomorrow.

·         Councillor Gerstner referred to some months ago members were given the indication that Cabinet would be given a presentation on the plans for the future of the three leisure centres in Fenland and asked if there was an update? Councillor Miscandlon responded that he has spoken to officers and it is not envisaged there will be a meeting between Cabinet and the projected programme until around March 2025 due to the complexity of the reports that have been received from the consultants and also getting Freedom Leisure on board with what is going to happen as they are the partners and have to agree. He added that officers have a meeting with Freedom this week to show them the latest report.