Reports & recommendations

In recognition of the various difficulties likely to be experienced in the design and construction of a light rail project through a city centre, the promoter and owner of the project should appoint as its procurement and project manager a company with suitably qualified and experienced permanent employees that has delivered a similar project successfully on time and within budget or can demonstrate that it will be able to do so.

Immediately following the appointment of the designer, and throughout the design of the project, the designer should engage with the promoter and owner of the project, the procurement and project manager, the local planning authority, the utility companies and interested third parties owning land that may be affected by the project to clarify their design criteria. In such discussions throughout the design of the project the promoter and owner of the project should co-ordinate responses to the various stages of design and, in doing so, should take into account the competing interests of different parties and of various departments within any local authority exercising different statutory functions as well as the significance of the project in the context of the community as a whole and should provide all necessary assistance and clear and timeous instructions to the designer to avoid delays and additional expense. In that regard:
• prior to the appointment of the designer the local planning authority ought to produce sufficiently detailed design guidelines to enable the designer to take them into account from the outset when designing the tram network and to improve the prospects of obtaining the necessary consents and approvals without requiring repeated re-submission of designs that will result in delay to the project with resultant expense;
• throughout the project a collaborative approach should be adopted by the promoter and owner to achieve an early resolution of any design issues that arise; and
• the promoter and owner should assume primary responsibility for co-ordinating the local authority’s response and for negotiating the resolution of all issues to enable clear instructions to be issued to the designer and to avoid re-design of sections of the route following reconsideration of matters that have been resolved at an earlier stage.

The governance structure for the delivery of a major project such as a light rail scheme should follow the published guidance and should ensure that there is clarity regarding the respective roles of the various bodies and individuals involved in its delivery. In particular, the chairman of the company responsible for the procurement and management of the project should not also be its chief executive.

At all stages of the project there should be a collaborative approach to delivering it. This should include the co-location of representatives from each organisation relevant to the particular stage reached and having an interest in its completion to enable any issues to be addressed and resolved at the earliest opportunity, thereby minimising the risk of the escalation of disputes with associated delays and increased expense.

The directors, employees and consultants of the company responsible for the procurement and delivery of the project as project managers, including an arm’s-length external organisation (“ALEO”) wholly owned by the local authority that is the promoter and owner of the project, should not submit to the local authority information that is deceptive or reports that are misleading either by the inclusion of false statements or by the omission of references to facts that might influence the strategic decisions of councillors if they were disclosed. In that regard they should recognise and respect the need for local authority officials to scrutinise and challenge the accuracy of information and reports submitted to them and should not seek to frustrate, or interfere with, the instruction of independent consultants to advise officials on the accuracy of the risk assessment in such reports or on the terms of any draft contracts for which they seek authority to sign.

Local authority officials should be mindful at all times of the distinction in roles between them and councillors, who are solely responsible for strategic decisions, and of their duty to provide accurate reports to councillors to enable them to take informed decisions based upon the reality of the situation. Such reports should not be misleading either by the inclusion of false statements or by the omission of relevant facts. Where officials prepare and submit reports based upon reports to them from an ALEO acting as the procurement and delivery vehicle, they should not assume the accuracy of these reports based upon the adoption of a “one family” approach involving the local authority and the ALEO.