Public Inquiry - Bywaters leaps into action!

We have proof positive that the Highways Agency simply haven't been paying attention to a word the Public Inquiry Inspector says.

For the past couple of weeks, stalwart objector John Hall has been emailing Persona Associates reminding them of the wishes of the Inspector regarding the closure of the Public Inquiry (you'll remember our blog about it the other week).

Last week, the programme officer Brenda Taplin was forced to email the Highways Agency Bypass chief Alex Bywaters to get some movement. Brenda very handily passed the email, along with Bywater's reply, on to John Hall, and it's available to view here (opens PDF).

For those who don't want to open the PDF, Brenda reminds Bywaters of the Inspector's request, and stresses the urgency in a very 'scolding' manner.

Bywaters replies, portraying himself as piggy in the middle: he says that, from his end, the respective legal departments of the Treasury and the Department for Transport are 'debating' something. He then asks Brenda if the Planning Inspectorate know what's going on!

The immediate question is - does this mean that neither the people in charge of the Bypass project nor the programme officer for the PI know what's going on? On first impressions, it would seem not*.

The other observation we can make is that Bywaters has failed to update the programme officer about the reasons for the delay. She has to email him, and then only after being mithered by an objector. Bywater's closing line "I want and end to this as much as the Inspector!" is ridiculous given that Taplin has had to remind him of the Inspector's request. It would seem to us that neither of them are motivated unless prodded by someone else.

Given that this charade is currently costing more than £7,000 a day, you wonder what it will take to get someone somewhere to do something to end this farce...

*As for what the DfT and Treasury are debating - well, we'll blog about our own views on what that is in the days to come.

Are Persona non-grata?

If you pop over to Persona Associates homepage, you can view a list of all the Inquiries they have had a hand in recently. One thing that's immediately clear is that work seems to be a little thin on the ground at the moment. Indeed, other than our Public Inquiry for the Bypass, the only other ongoing Inquiry is the one for the Victoria Station Upgrade.

Further evidence that they seem to be falling on hard times can be evidenced here. Note that in 2008, they undertook 7 PIs, whereas in previous years they were extremely busy, with usually more than double this number in any one year.

What's the explanation? Is it the 'credit crunch' (isn't everything these days?), or is it the fact that Planning Law is due to change very shortly? Or could it be that the Longdendale Bypass PI has been a complete shambles, demonstrating Persona's complete subservience to the whims of the Highways Agency? We'd like to think it was the latter, but we know life is usually more complex than that.

Incidentally, we'd love to know whether or not the Chair and Managing Director of Persona Associates - a Graham Groom - is the same Graham Groom here: a one-time website designer and Doctor Who fan, who has a special interest in Page 3 models. If you know (Persona) Graham, drop us a line to confirm or deny.

(Readers may remember that we had an alternate take on the title of this post not long after the PI started when virtually everyone made Persona's link page - apart from us. It's still the case.)