A Conservative Cabinet decision to spend a further £300,000 on consultants’ fees for the East of Bath Park and Ride has been scrutinised by B&NES Councillors, who have also criticised the Council for disallowing an attempted formal challenge, known as a ‘call-in’.

Opposition Councillors claim there is no legal basis, under the B&NES Constitution, for the Council to reject a call-in request and are disputing this ruling. However, as a compromise, two points from the call-in were considered by the Resources Scrutiny Panel: whether the full Cabinet should have signed off on the spending in public, and the risks associated with the spending, should the project not go ahead.

Councillor Dine Romero (Leader of the Lib-Dem Group) said: “We remain concerned at the risk of continued spending on this project ahead of the announcement of a site, and before the likely legal challenges are settled. This seems a case of throwing good money after bad, and in neat three hundred thousand pound bundles. We called for a full investigation into spending so far and the expected future spends.”

Cllr Joe Rayment (Deputy Leader of the Labour Group) said, of the decision to rule the call-in invalid that it is: “An attack on the democratic processes of the Council, an attack on opposition Councillors and an attack on all the residents who did not vote for a Conservative Councillor.” He went on to invite all Conservative Councillors to join the Labour and Liberal Democrat Councillors in opposing this, pointing out that: “When they are in opposition again, they will not want the precedent to have been set that opposition Councillors should sit down and shut up.”

Councillor Andrew Furse (Kingsmead), who is the Lib-Dem representative on the Resources panel, added: “I have asked for a complete account of money spent on the East of Bath Park and Ride from 2008.”

Cllr Alison Millar (Lib-Dem) commented that: “It is in the public interest that key decisions such as these should be taken in public forum, i.e. by the full Cabinet, otherwise it looks like the expenditure is being buried.

“If the Cabinet members truly believe that this project is good for Bath, why are they not prepared to defend it in public? I believe they are just not sure. This is a judgment call for the Cabinet and a huge risk for them to choose to obliterate green meadows when the Council itself has said that the project will make no difference to pollution or congestion.”

Councillor Anthony Clarke, (Conservative, Lansdown, Cabinet Member for Transport), said: “This funding is to allow the Council to continue with the important and necessary preparatory work that will allow for an informed and evidence-based decision to be taken on a preferred Park and Ride site, in advance of a planning application being submitted. This has included the detailed work requested by the Council’s cross-party LDF and scrutiny committees earlier this year, with the Council looking carefully and thoroughly at all the various options put forward. Some of the work which has been undertaken will also help form part of the evidence-base for other transport improvements, such as an eastern link-road.

“I would have thought that Lib-Dem and Labour Councillors would welcome the fact the Council is undertaking the rigorous work which they themselves asked for, looking at all the potential options.

“The budget for this work was actually created by the previous Liberal Democrat administration to allow work on an Eastern Park and Ride to progress, of which they themselves spent several hundreds of thousands of pounds, yet failed to move the project forward.”

Regarding the call-in request by Lib-Dem and Labour councillors, which was deemed invalid by the council solicitor, Cllr Tim Warren, Leader of the Council, said: “The decision on whether or not a call-in is valid under the constitution is solely a matter for the Council’s Chief Legal Officer and Chief Executive, there is absolutely no involvement by politicians whatsoever.

“I am always happy for the Cabinet’s decisions to be scrutinised, as this is both part of our democracy and good for decision-making, which is why I suggested that the Resources Scrutiny Committee consider the matter.”

The further £300,000 which will be used will now take preparatory work on the new Park and Ride scheme to over £1 million, with a site decision now not due until next year. The proposed sites have included land east and west of Mill Lane (Bathampton Meadows) and two plots of land off the A4 Box Road.