Janet Finch-Saunders AM has called on the Welsh Government to give priority to local firms when procuring for the future works at Junctions 15 and 16 on the A55, in the wake of the collapse of Carillion.
The firm had been contracted for the design works, a stage which the Cabinet Secretary had confirmed in October last year would be ongoing for 18 months.
The Member raised the issued directly with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance in the Senedd, in an Emergency Question, today.
Janet said:
“The works to remove the roundabouts at Junction 15 and 16 on the A55 have been in the pipeline for a long time.
“Following the local consultation exercise undertaken by Carillion, locals, businesses and commuters will be anxious to ensure that these works are not unduly delayed.
“The Welsh Government must seek to ensure that their timeline for these improvement works to go ahead is stuck to, and in doing so, I urge them to give first priority to local firms to carry out these works.”
ENDS
Notes:
Transcript from Plenary, 16th January 2018:
Janet Finch-Saunders AM:
Back to my lovely constituency of Aberconwy, and thank you for making reference to junctions 15 and 16 on the A55 and the removal of the roundabouts. Those works have been long promised by this Welsh Government, so it's understandable that now, with Carillion having gone into liquidation, many of my constituents are asking me what's going to happen where those works are concerned. Cabinet Secretary, is there a chance that I can go back to my constituency and tell my residents, our motorists and our visitors that you will actually look at getting on with these works, and, maybe, why don't we look towards more local procurement? I cannot see why these works could not have been carried out. We have local companies in our area that could have carried out these works, but will you, please, look at getting on with these works, because the hold-ups on the A55 and the terrible problems we have—. Carillion has gone now into liquidation, but we still have that situation on the A55 that is really affecting our motorists and our residents, so anything you could do would really be appreciated. Thank you.
Mark Drakeford:
Well, I fully appreciate the points that Janet Finch-Saunders has made. Carillion was contracted in the design phase only, so far, of the junctions 15 and 16 of the A55, and there would have been about 12 months of that design work still to go. The Welsh Government will look to see whether there are ways in which we can respond to these difficulties in a way that does not lead to that timetable being elongated. These are very early days, but, just to give her an example of the sort of actions we will look to explore, there are subcontractors in that contract actually carrying out the work, maybe it will be possible for one of those subcontractors to become the main contractor, to carry on that work and to complete the important developments at that junction, which I know matter to her constituents and to others who use that part of the A55, without further delay.20
Llywydd, I ought to apologise to Russell George for failing to have answered the first part of his question. If I could very briefly say to him, there are two other contracts that we have. There is the contract at the Llanddewi Brefi section of the A40, where the design phase is more or less complete and where we will now have to think about how to take forward the second phase of a three-phase contract. Then there was section 3 of the A465, which has been completed, which is already open, where there is a small-scale landscape contract that would have lasted for five years with Carillion beyond the opening of that section 3 of the Heads of the Valleys road. We're halfway through that five-year period. We will now have to find another way of fulfilling the remaining two and a half years. But that is the full extent of the exposure of the Welsh Government to Carillion in the contracts that the Member mentioned.
On 4th October 2017, Janet Finch-Saunders AM tabled the following WAQ, answered on 10th October 2017:
WAQ74331 Janet Finch-Saunders AM
Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on progress with regards the improvement works to junctions 15 and 16 on the A55, to include details of the public consultation, and a detailed timetable for development, consultation, design and construction?
Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure
We recently appointed Carillion as the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contractor to progress the improvements of Junctions 15 and 16 on the A55. Over the next 18 months we will be progressing the design development of both junctions which will include public consultations. We are planning to hold Public Information Exhibitions towards the end of the year where further details of the programme for delivering the junction improvements will be presented.