A14 Public Enquiry update

As you will know the consultation on the proposals to rebuild the A14 closed on the 6^th of January 2010. The Government have appointed the Inspector and his team. The full details of all the objections is likely to be made public in March. The Inspector is likely to hold the first meeting with objectors in mid May.

The full enquiry which is likely to take 10 /12 weeks is be in two parts, the first in June / July and the second in September / October. During this period the Highways Agency and their contractors will continue to seek to resolve objections.

Guided Busway

The County continue to hold the contractor BNL to its obligations under the design  and build contract for the guided busway. Unfortunately, this will result in a delay in bringing it into service.  The northern section is substantially complete but has six significant defects that the county require the contractor to put right before we accept it into service. If we accept it before the defects are sorted out the long term liability is likely to move to the county, which no one wants. A summary of the situation is as follows:

• Key defects need to be rectified
• CCC will not takeover until they are
• BNL are refusing that these items are defects effectively paralysing the process
• CCC can’t terminate the contract on this basis
• Need to continue seeking rectification of these issues

This is very frustrating and likely to end up in expensive legal action against the contractor but is necessary.

Fulbourn Library Access Point

The LAP service is under financial pressure with £30k of savings required. I have been working with the Fulbourn LAP to secure its future. We invited Sir Peter Brown, the responsible cabinet member, to a meeting to explain the good work being carried out. We are now a lot more hopeful after Peter gave a great big thumbs up toFulbourn LAP.