FOI by local newspaper unveils breakdown of charges incurred in inquiry to build the New Generation Transport project
A Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request by the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) has revealed some of the costs incurred with the Public Inquiry (PI) into the Leeds trolleybus project.
Known as the New Generation Transport (NGT), £170m of funding for the trolleybus scheme was awarded from central government in the summer of 2012. The scheme’s promoters – Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) – need to secure a Transport Works Act Order (TWAO) for legal powers to commission, build and operate the system. The PI for the TWAO took place between April and October last year. A decision on the scheme’s future is not expected until late this year or early next.
The YEP said the overall bill for the PI process could be as much as £2.6m – with the work undertaken by Martin Whitehead, the Government-appointed inspector who headed up the inquiry reportedly costing £630 a day. The Department for Transport (DfT) is being invoiced £157,162 for his time, with individual expense items including £10,596 for Mr Whitehead’s preparatory work; £41,170 for the days that the PI sat in Leeds between April and October last year; and £83,941 for Mr Whitehead’s work on the post-inquiry report to the DfT that will decide the fate of the trolleybus scheme. Other expenditure includes £5,709 on hotel stays and £2,154 on ‘subsistence.’ Mr Whitehead’s report has now been submitted to the DfT.
A spokesman for the WYCA said: “Any project of the size and scale of NGT has to undergo a PI. The costs of an inquiry are affected by its duration and that is to a very large extent dependent upon the number of submissions made by objectors. During last year’s 72-day inquiry, NGT was subject to significant public scrutiny through representations from individuals and First Bus’ legal experts.”
The spokesman added that the WYCA remained confident that the case for the scheme was “compelling.”
Construction work on the system – which would run from Holt Park in the north of the city to Stourton in the south – could start by 2017 if it clears the final hurdle.
