Issue - meetings

Chris Broadbent, CEEQUAL Director to present an award in relation to Sefton’s Broom’s Cross Road scheme

The Deputy Chair indicated that it gave him great pleasure to welcome Mr Chris Broadbent, CEEQUAL Director who was in attendance to present the CEEQUAL award to the Leader of the Council, in relation to Sefton’s Broom’s Cross Road Scheme.

The Deputy Chair indicated that Members would recall that the A5758 Broom’s Cross Road scheme opened in August 2015. At the start of the design and build contract, the scheme was registered with CEEQUAL (the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality scheme), the assessment and awards scheme for improving sustainability in civil engineering and infrastructure. Following a detailed assessment last year the scheme was awarded an Excellent rating.

The Deputy Chair indicated that it gave him great pleasure to welcome Mr Chris Broadbent, CEEQUAL Director, who was in attendance to present the CEEQUAL Excellent award for the A5758 Broom’s Cross Road scheme to the Leader of the Council; and invited Mr Broadbent to say a few words about  CEEQUAL and the award for Broom’s Cross Road and to present the award.

Mr. Broadbent gave a brief background on the scheme, in that it had been developed by Sefton Council and the Department for Transport.  He stated that Balfour Beatty was appointed by the Council to construct the scheme, supported by designer Jacobs, who undertook the environmental impact assessment for the scheme.

Mr Broadbent reported on the overall key achievements of the scheme as:

• 99.9% of demolition and deconstruction waste was re-used or recycled.
• 45% of materials were reused or recycled (by volume, excluding bulk fill and sub base).
• Over 60% of bulk fill and sub base was site-won.
• Local companies benefited from £2.4m of business.
• 71 Sefton residents were employed on the site at some point during the works.
• 39,000 new trees and shrubs and 2.4km of hedges were planted.

Mr. Broadbent referred to the active and leading role Sefton Council had taken throughout the development and construction of the project. It was reported that the major scheme business case was prepared in-house by the Council and was successful in securing the funding commitment from Central Government. From the outset, the Council recognised the importance of the environmental aspects of the project. The scheme was built on agricultural land in the green belt, so the design had to integrate the scheme into the existing landscape and incorporated appropriate and effective environmental mitigation measures. Part of the justification for the scheme was to deliver environmental improvements for local communities, in terms of traffic, noise and air quality, ensuring that the environmental improvements would not be achieved at great cost to the local landscape and wildlife.

The Council also made it clear from the outset that they wished to see opportunities given to local people and businesses from the project. During the construction, six local companies benefited from £2.4m of business and 71 Sefton residents were employed on the site at some point during the works.

There was only a limited number of historical features in the vicinity of the scheme, but considerable attention  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69