District Audit Must Investigate Landmark Leeds Debacle! (Leeds Liberal Democrats)

Leeds Liberal Democrats <info@leedslibdems.org.uk>

District Audit Must Investigate Landmark Leeds Debacle!

February 19, 2004 8:13 PM

Lib Dems Call for Contract Investigation as Final Report into pedestrianisation scheme arrives after fourteen years ………….

Councillor Mark Harris, Leader of the Opposition Liberal Democrat Group on Leeds City Council, has written to the District Auditor calling for a full investigation into the way in which Council Standing Orders were suspended to allow non standard contracts for the implementation of 'Landmark Leeds' to be entered into. The lack of accountability in those contracts played a major role in the additional millions which Leeds had to pay for the scheme, and are at the heart of the reasons why the City suffers from deteriorating paving throughout the City Centre.

Cllr Harris said "At the Executive Board meeting last Friday it was made clear to us that senior legal officers had serious reservations about the type of contracts entered into back in 1990. Those reservations do not appear to have been brought before the meetings that took the decisions to approve the suspension of Standing Orders. In the report before the Executive Board on the 13th February the contracts are criticised for failing to state which parties were exclusively responsible for the design of works and the co-ordination of that design. External legal advisers state that "All of the ensuing problems would have been avoided in principle at least by letting a traditional Design Build Contract". External legal advisers also pointed out that the contracts did not include 'clear functional performance specifications' or provide for 'an integrated dispute resolution machinery'.

continued

"As a result of these omissions the Executive Board has been advised that 'the situation is continuing to deteriorate' and will be 'an increasing maintenance liability'. Already, on a scheme originally costed at £3.6 million, additional costs of £2.8 million have been incurred and, in the opinion of many, the whole project has failed to bring the pedestrian environment of city shopping standard up to an acceptable standard.

"I have therefore written to District Audit asking them to carry out an investigation of whether proper notice was taken by elected members of Officer concerns about the nature of contracts entered into by the Council regarding Landmark Leeds back in 1990; and also whether any action should be taken to re-imburse the Council for the losses it incurred as a result of the type of contract it entered into."