Mark Whitby, former president of the Institution for Civil Engineers, has launched a legal challenge against the Secretary of State for Transport’s decision to grant a Transport and Works Act Order for Network Rail’s Ordsall Chord project (RAIL 775).
The civil engineer, who formerly worked on behalf of Network Rail as a design consultant on the project, has started proceedings at the High Court after some potential errors of law in the decision-making process wre identified by his legal team. This challenge will not be a replaying of the inquiry into the project’s details - rather it will focus on the legal procedures involved in the approval of the chord project, and attempt to prove that mistakes have been made in the approval of the plans.
Whitby made the decision to resign from the project when it was made clear that the original plans would be taken forward for planning assessment. This has allowed him to object to the controversial plans to build a new link across several heritage sites in the centre of Manchester.
- To read more on this story, read RAIL 776, published on June 10.
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Geoff Kerr - 03/06/2015 22:59
More delay, more taxpayers' money wasted. The December 2019 timetable depends on the Curve being built and in operation!
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