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.