Council did not tender work for major road projects

Herefordshire Council did not tender work to develop major road projects such as the Hereford bypass and southern link road, it has been revealed.

Breinton resident Liz Morawiecka asked last month’s audit and governance committee if there had been a competitive tender for the roughly £10m spent on plans for the southern link road and Hereford bypass.

The proposed link road forms part of the council’s South Wye Transport Package and its aim is to connect the A49 Ross road with the A465 Abergavenny road.

The road is seen as the first phase of the proposed western city bypass which would connect the Abergavenny road with the A49 north of Holmer — it forms part of the Hereford Transport Package.

Officers have now revealed in a written response to Mrs Morawiecka that the work done so far to develop the road projects has not been procured through tenders.

“The work done to progress the South Wye Transport Package and the Hereford Transport Package to date have not been procured as a result of separate project specific tenders,” the letter reads.

“The services of those design professionals employed by WSP who are speaking on major projects at council meetings, have been procured through the public realm services contract, which is a contract that has been competitively tendered under EU procurement rules.”

But council officers say that major schemes and major projects are not the same for the purposes of procurement.

“‘Major schemes’ is a defined term under this contract and this defined term should not be confused with the term ‘major projects’,” the letter continues.

“A major project may lead to a major scheme but the progress of many major projects, such as the above mentioned transport packages, may involve, for example, design services.

“Such services have been procured as part of the public realm services contract and as they ordinarily fall within the scope of that contract, they are not in themselves major schemes.

“It is the case that WSP are not a signatory to the Public Realm Services Contract, that contract being between Herefordshire Council and Balfour Beatty Living Places Ltd.

“The contract does allow for subcontracting and where Balfour Beatty Living Places subcontracts any part of the services, they are responsible for provision as if they had not subcontracted.

“The provision of such sub-contract services to Balfour Beatty Living Places is the subject of a competitive procurement process run by them to establish their subcontract relationship with WSP.”