The new Conservative administration on Bath and North East Somerset Council is launching a major ‘External Review’ of the way the authority manages the delivery of major Council projects like traffic schemes and road improvements.
The review will be undertaken by external experts and comes in the wake of a series of long delays to a number of major projects undertaken by the Council’s previous Liberal Democrat administration.
The aim of the review will be to get to the bottom of why so many projects fell so far behind schedule and look at what the Council can do to improve the way it delivers its major projects in the future.
Conservatives have said they want to make sure the Council has more robust procedures in place to deal with unexpected problems as well as better oversight of major projects to prevent such lengthy over-runs from happening again.
Conservative Leader of B&NES Council, Cllr Tim Warren, said:
“The huge delays to several major transport projects undertaken by the previous Lib Dem administration have been totally unacceptable, causing months of traffic misery for residents in Bath and the wider area.
“We’ve got to make sure that robust procedures are in place to prevent this type of thing happening again in future, with better planning and oversight of project delivery within the Council.
“That’s why I have asked the Council to undertake this External Review into the way B&NES delivers major projects.
It will be undertaken by experts from outside the Council in order to provide an independent view of what the Council could do better in terms of project management, and I look forward to seeing the conclusion once the review has been completed.”
