To confirm making of the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and Side Roads Order (SRO) and to approve commencing the procurement of a contractor for the Southern Link Road (SLR).

The cabinet member infrastructure introduced the report. He referred to the decision of cabinet made on 20 October 2016 which agreed in principle the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) and Side Roads Orders (SRO), if required, for the acquisition of land along the route of the Southern Link Road (SLR). The cabinet member reported that negotiations with landowners were progressing fairly well but it was felt that arrangements for CPOs and SROs should now be put in place to avoid future delays in the delivery of the project.

The report also recommended the establishment and implementation of a procurement strategy to inform a decision on the awarding of a contract for the construction of the SLR.

The leader of the council queried what the total cost would be. The head of infrastructure delivery responded that financial implications were set out in report as being £1.8m estimated cost for land acquisition and compensation, £500k for the CPO / SRO public enquiry process and £150k for the procurement process to cover profession fees to produce tender documents, manage the tender process and undertake detailed reviews of the submitted tenders.

The cabinet member for transport and roads asked how negotiations were faring in respect of acquiring land. It was confirmed that the council was in contact with all relevant landowners and had made offers to each of them. Officers were pleased with the progress that had been made and were hopeful that negotiations would be concluded with all landowners. However the CPO process needed to run alongside the ongoing negotiations to give certainty to timescales.

The cabinet member for finance, housing and ICT asked whether the legal costs for the CPO would be paid up front or paid along the process of the CPOs. He asked whether costs would reduce if negotiated settlements were reached with landowners.

The head of infrastructure delivery confirmed that the costs were those that the council would incur if it went through a CPO process including legal support to defend and make the council’s case for the scheme, the costs of setting up an inquiry locally and the costs of the independent inspector appointed to hear the CPO inquiry. The more objections there were to a CPO then the longer and more complex the inquiry would be which would have an impact on costs. There would still be some legal costs if all land was acquired by negotiation.

The leader of the its our county group confirmed that he had submitted the views of his group in writing prior to the meeting and thanked the cabinet member and officers for their responses. He queried the claim that there had been no overspend on the city link road. He also queried the status of funding from the Marches LEP growth deal for the south wye transport package citing a lack of clarity as to whether this was a loan or not. Reference had been made in documents to paying back the £1.7m allocated, although the earlier correction confirming  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62