Following today’s sentencing (Wednesday, 16 April), on behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council, the following statement is being issued by the Council’s Chief Executive, Dr Stephen Moir:
“In providing the Guided Busway, Cambridgeshire County Council has a clear duty and responsibility to uphold the highest standards of health and safety at work.
“As Chief Executive, since 2022, I fully accept that during the historical operation of the Guided Busway, the Council has fallen far short of meeting these standards. I am not only truly sorry for these failures, but I am also deeply disappointed that the Council has found itself in this position. This should never have happened.
“More importantly, I’d like to offer my full and unreserved apologies to the families and friends of all those impacted by our actions or lack of action resulting from the failings we have fully accepted in court. They have my sincere condolences and are the people uppermost in my thoughts and those of the Council today.
“So, I speak directly to those families and friends now and say that whilst I know we can’t put right what has happened, I promise that the failings the court has considered during this hearing will not be repeated.
“This Council, under my leadership, is committed to ensuring the safe operation of the Guided Busway and we have already taken action to address the historical failings as well as ensuring risks are robustly managed in the future.
“Our safety regime for the busway now includes thorough and frequent inspections, a rolling programme of risk assessments and strengthened incident recording, reporting and investigations. We now have a dedicated busway operations safety team in place, and we have also installed bespoke fencing on the southern section of the busway, reduced speed limits and are reviewing all the signs and lining along the route.
“We will continue to work constructively and proactively with the Health and Safety Executive and will also support the development of national busway guidance so that the lessons we have learned here in Cambridgeshire are shared more widely.
“The safety of people accessing the Guided Busway is of paramount importance to the County Council and to the bus operators that use our infrastructure.
“I’d like to reassure all those who use the Guided Busway, that we have learnt our lessons the hard way and changed our approach for the future. The busway is and remains an important, accessible and safe public transport system for all the people who live in, work in, travel through or visit Cambridgeshire.”
