A decision was taken 9 August 2019 by Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Highways to pause all work on the South Wye Transport Package and Hereford bypass and a review of the projects be undertaken to determine next steps. This decision was called in and a General Scrutiny meeting was held 9th September in which recommendations were made.

The Cabinet Member took a further decision 22 October 2019 which took into consideration the recommendations made by General Scrutiny Committee and confirmed a review of the South Wye Transport Package and the bypass project to determine next steps.

On 24 January 2020 the Cabinet Member took a decision to approve the scope, outline programme and timescale for undertaking the review of the Hereford and South Wye Transport Packages.
The report outlined that the review is essential to ensure that the council’s decision making is fully informed by the latest information and best practice.

On 2 March 2020 the Acting Assistant Director Highways & Transport took a decision to approve the commencement of the procurement of a consultant to undertake an independent peer assessment of the Hereford Transport Package (HTP) and South Wye Transport Package (SWTP).
The procurement was undertaken directly by the council through an open market tendering process in accordance with the council’s procurement rules using the south west portal and concluded 18 March 2020. Eight bidders returned tenders, with all eight being compliant with the requirements of the Invitation to Tender (ITT).

The tender returns were independently evaluated by a panel of three officers on the basis of the requirements and scoring laid out in the ITT. Subsequently a joint moderation was undertaken in conjunction with two members of the corporate services team to reach a moderated final score.
Mott MacDonald Ltd achieved an overall score of 88.15%.

A number of the tender returns identified the potential need to consider further background technical data or seek clarifications from the previous consultant in order to effectively deliver the peer assessment. BBLP and their sub consultant WSP have provided professional services since 2013 for the HTP and SWTP. To ensure the programme of the assessment is maintained BBLP will be commissioned through the public realm contract to enable them to provide data or clarifications if they become necessary in a timely manner. This will be a supplementary activity to the BBLP annual plan.

On 2 March 2020 2020 the Acting Assistant Director Highways & Transport took a decision to award a contract to Mott MacDonald Ltd to undertake an independent peer assessment of the Hereford Transport Package (HTP) and South Wye Transport Package (SWTP), as outlined in the 24 January 2020 cabinet member transport and infrastructure report and commission Balfour Beatty Living Places, as the provider of professional services for the HTP and SWTP since 2013, under the public realm contract to provide additional technical information or clarifications for the peer assessment if required during the peer assessment process.

As part of the peer assessment work Mott MacDonald have reviewed previous technical documents and as anticipated have raised technical clarifications for officers and BBLP / WSP to respond to. In this review additional technical documents have been provided and as a result the magnitude of assessment and clarifications increased. This resulted in an extension to the programme of one month and additional costs from BBLP / WSP to provide these clarifications. This programme extension remained within the timeline indicated in the 24 January 2020 cabinet member report and was discussed and agreed with the cabinet member.