Transport Insights

I have (jointly) written the lead story in the latest issue of Local Transport Today (LTT) looking at the escalating row over the “independent peer review” that put the proposed £2.5bn West Yorkshire mass transit project back by years.

The refusal by all concerned to publish the publicly funded review was controversial enough, but a senior councillor who sits on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) has alleged that was is being said about the review’s findings publicly does not reflect is contents, to the point of dishonesty.

Cllr Alan Lamb, leader of the Conservative Group on Leeds City Council, told a meeting of the WYCA last month:

I think people need to see and understand what is in this paper and what the implications are because mass transit is in peril.

Cllr Lamb told me that he also strongly disputes the reasons given by the authority for not publishing the review by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).

Having read the [review report], I do not believe there is anything commercially sensitive and I remain of the view that it is strongly in the public interest for the report to be publicly available.

He added:

I have asked to see the legal advice and have been told my request is being considered under access to information rules. I will use every legitimate means available to me to try and get the report released from its exempt status.

The WYCA insists that the report is exempt from publication under paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, but appears to have mixed up issues of commercial confidentiality with the need for a a “safe space” for officials to think through policy options.

The problem for both the authority and the Department for Transport, which insists that live policy discussions are ongoing, is that this contradicts the official story that the decision to “resequence” the mass transit project has been taken and the government remains committed to it.

It’s almost as if the Labour Government and a Labour regional mayor are colluding to put a brave face on a project that has gone badly wrong.