EMERGENCY procedures have been used to ensure the council did not miss out on securing more than £4 million towards the cost of the Warrington West railway station.

The £20.5 million Chapelford site opened to commuters in December, with the council putting more than £7.38 million towards the scheme.

The funding package also included £6.53 million from Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership’s local growth fund, £1.85 million from section 106 agreements and developer contributions and £4.23 million from the Department for Transport’s New Stations Fund.

But it can be revealed that council leader Cllr Russ Bowden made a decision under ‘special urgency provisions’ to sign an asset purchase agreement (APA) to secure the £4.23 million.

Approval was previously given for the Labour-run authority to enter into agreements with Network Rail, while committing to receiving the Government money.

However, this could only be on the presupposition that officers comply with the contract procedure rules (CPRs).

One of the agreements with Network Rail related to the APA.

In a report to the cabinet for its meeting next Monday, the council says the process of agreeing the detail of this agreement had been protracted, which resulted in the council being in a position where the APA needed to be signed by the urgent deadline of March 13.

It added: “This was to enable Network Rail to complete the execution of the document and release the £4.23 million of New Stations Fund funding due to Warrington Borough Council.

“If this deadline had not been met there would have been a very significant risk that the funding would have been lost.

“As set out in the CPRs any contract over £250,000, such as the APA, should be executed as a deed, a process for which officers have delegated approval.

“However, Network Rail has drafted the APA as a simple contract.

“They are reluctant to complete as a deed and, even if they had been prepared to agree to this, it would have taken around two weeks to approve such a change within Network Rail’s internal governance processes, resulting in the deadline being missed and the funding being lost.”

The report says the council was, therefore, required to enter in the agreement as a simple contract to meet the deadline and receive the cash.

As the value of the agreement exceeds £250,000, a decision to waive the CPRs could not be made as an officer decision and would ordinarily require cabinet approval.

The council has told members that timescales did not allow for cabinet approval so emergency procedures, as set out in the constitution, were required to enter into the agreement as a simple contract rather than a deed.

The cabinet is recommended to note the decision to sign the asset purchase agreement next Monday.

The decision was taken after consultation with Matthew Cumberbatch, the council’s director of law and governance, as well as monitoring officer, who said it met the emergency procedure requirements.