Contractor up (Spaghetti) Junction: Amey Birmingham Highways v Birmingham City Council

摘要

AMEY Birmingham Highways was engaged by Birmingham City Council (BCC) in 2010 to carry out a 25-year private finance initiative (PFI) contract relating to the rehabilitation, maintenance, management and operation of the roads and street lighting network in Birmingham. However, by 2014 the relationship between the parties had soured significantly. BCC claimed Amey was in breach of contract in failing to carry out work it was obliged to undertake under the PFI contract.Amey argued that certain sections of the 'contractual inventory data', which established the nature and condition of the network under its care, did not have to be updated and therefore had stopped updates to a computer system known as the project network model (PNM).BCC claimed that the contractor was obliged to update the databases to reflect the actual road network. The dispute was referred to adjudication in which BCC was successful. Amey then began court proceedings (Amey Birmingham Highways Ltd v Birmingham City Council (2016) ewhc 2191 (Tcc)) in which the first instance court granted declaratory relief finding that the adjudicator's decision was wrong, as a matter of law, and was not binding on the parties.