Issue - meetings

Further to Minute No. 03/151, to consider a report by the Director of Operational Services outlining a suggested response from the District Council to the County Council’s application for an Order under the Transport and Works Act 1992 to facilitate the guided bus scheme.

noted the serving of the TWA Order application, for the Cambridgeshire Guided Bus, on the District Council and agreed not to object and

authorised the Director of Central Services, after consultation with the Executive Councillor for Resources, Welfare and IT, to initiate negotiations with the County Council in respect of the transfer of the land in the District Council’s ownership required for the scheme.

(Councillors I C Bates and R L Clarke declared their respective personal interests as Members of Cambridgeshire County Council in the following item of business.)

Further to Minute No. 03/151, the Cabinet considered a report by the Head of Environment and Transport (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) regarding the County Council’s Transport and Works Act (TWA) submission for the guided bus scheme.

By way of background, Members were reminded that the TWA Order would provide the County Council with deemed planning consent and authority to acquire the necessary land to construct the guided sections of the route, principally between St Ives and Histon.

In discussing the implications of the order for Huntingdonshire, the Cabinet received representations from Councillors J C Mugglestone, K Reynolds and J M Sadler highlighting their constituents’ concerns in relation to the scheme’s cost, environmental impact, and overall benefits for both commuters and the District in general.

In acknowledging the unlikelihood of sustaining an objection to the submission and having noted that negotiations were continuing with the County Council over the design of the final scheme, the Cabinet.

RESOLVED

  (a)that the service of the TWA Order application on the District Council be noted;

  (b)that no objection be made to the application;and

  (c)that the Director of Central Services after consultation with the Executive Councillor for Resources, Welfare and IT be authorised, to initiate negotiations with the County Council in respect of the transfer of the land in the District Council’s ownership required for the scheme.

(Councillors I C Bates and L M Simpson requested that it be recorded that they had abstained from voting on this item.)