Progress on Lichfield greenway plans 'held up by insurance problems'
Progress has been made on the long awaited greenway between Lichfield and Chasewater. The plans to open more than six kilometres of disused railway line into a greenway is now being held up by insurance problems.
The council is working with volunteer group, Back the Track, who are currently clearing the route of the former South Staffordshire Line between Lichfield and Chasewater. Now the landowner, Network Rail have agreed terms for a 50 year lease over the line.
Council Leader, Councillor Doug Pullen, said: “We have been negotiating with our insurer over the terms of the lease that has been presented to us by Network Rail.
The major issues they had were around public liability from the surface of the track and also then from liability arising from issues mainly to do with the M6 toll and in particular any consequential loss that arises if something happens to one of the bridges that we’re taking on as part of that lease.”
Now the insurance company has signed off on the surface of the greenway at no additional cost to the council. However the company is only willing to provide limited structural insurance, which would only cover fire, lightning, explosion, aircraft and terrorism; however this does not cover all the force majeure events needed.
A review conducted by Engineering Consultancy Services Limited concluded that the overall condition of the structures was ‘fair’ and recommended setting aside £13,000 for structure inspections and potential repairs.
Talks are continuing with the council’s corporate insurer to understand if they would be willing to cover the structures. However talks with alternative providers are taking place. There is also the possibility that the council could self insure by using reserves.
If the council were to self insure it would require a reserve balance of £2million. Councillor Rob Strachan, Cabinet Member for Finance and Commissioning commented that despite wanting the project to succeed the self insure option makes him ‘uncomfortable.’
He said: “When we initially considered the reserve for elements of it would be £400,000, I could just about wear it although it still reflects a significant proportion of our reserves potentially tied up in this project. But I’m very aware that this is a 50 year lease with no break clause and I don’t want to see ourselves shackled with something that is essentially far more risk than this council can handle.”
The cabinet at Lichfield District Council unanimously approved the recommendation which gave permission for external specialist advice to advise whether mitigations in place reduce the risk to a more tolerable level; continue to seek out insurance options. If these can’t be achieved then a report will come back to the cabinet to seek permission from full council on self insuring.
