Southampton City Council scrutiny committee to review Portswood Broadway decision
The committee can officially recommend to the cabinet to change its mind on going ahead with the controversial plans
There could be a last-ditch effort to get Southampton City Council to reconsider pressing ahead with the controversial Portswood Broadway scheme.
Despite the scheme being voted in by Southampton City Council on January 16, the authority’s scrutiny committee has now ‘called in’ the matter.
This means the committee can officially recommend to the cabinet to change its mind on going ahead with the controversial plans.
The scheme, to pedestrianise part of the broadway to make it ‘greener and more vibrant’, has been the centre of huge debate since it was first announced back in 2020.
Objectors, which include residents, business owners and the Tory opposition, said it will be ‘the death of the broadway’, as 12,000 cars a day will be diverted.
After a ‘Say No’ petition garnered nearly 3,000 signatures and made it to full council and protests were held in the district centre, the city council’s cabinet unanimously agreed to go ahead with the scheme, saying it had listened to concerns and that is why it was starting it on a ‘part-time basis’.
As well as allowing pedestrians through the broadway, buses will also be able to go through a bus gate which will be constructed towards the end of 2024 and begin operating from 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm.
Now the council’s overview scrutiny and management committee (OSMC) which is made up of councillors from all parties of the authority have ‘called in’ the item to the Thursday (February 1) meeting.
Calling in an item to OSMC is in essence, a last-ditch attempt to change a cabinet decision. If enough members of OSMC agree to make a formal recommendation to the cabinet then the cabinet will have to consider it in its next meeting.
According to a pre-OSMC report, the reason for the call-in, which was signed by OSMC chair Councillor Richard Blackman and OSMC vice-chair Councillor Jeremy Moulton, states the reasons:
- ‘Lack of adequate consideration, and misrepresentation of the findings from the consultation undertaken by the Council’.
- ‘Information that would help to inform the decision relating to current pollution levels and bus delays caused by traffic on Portswood Broadway has not been provided’.
- ‘Concern with regards to disabled access to Portswood Broadway, particularly the chemist’.
- ‘Concern that changes to the proposals agreed at Cabinet limit the ability to deliver the objectives set for the Portswood Broadway Project’.
- 'Lack of clarity in respect of the timetable for the trial and subsequent next steps, and the success criteria to be employed for the bus gate trial’.
The committee will need a majority vote to make the recommendation to the cabinet – and despite this seeming likely due to the scrutinising nature of the body, it might not be so straightforward.
OSMC is made up of nine councillors and its composition is proportional to the political make-up of the council. This means that Labour, which has a strong council majority of 37 out of 51 seats, takes up five of the nine positions in OSMC.
The Conservatives, on the other hand, who have been outspoken about their views to ‘scrap the scheme immediately’ only have two members of the committee.
Officially, this shouldn’t make a difference because the committee’s role is to scrutinise the executive and not let politics slide in.
The two recommendation options for the Portswood Broadway call-in are for the decision to be reconsidered or not reconsidered and ‘implemented without delay’.