New partnership to see the joining of Coventry and Warwickshire’s highways
Warwickshire County Council and Coventry Highways are looking at developing a new highway contract that will deliver certain activities through a shared main contractor from May 2011.
Preliminary details were presented to Warwickshire Members at their Cabinet Meeting on the 26th November.
Councillor Alan Cockburn, portfolio holder for Environment said: “The close proximity of Coventry and Warwickshire means it is clearly sensible to dovetail certain highway activities where appropriate.
"Increasing joint working activities such as surface dressing and bridge maintenance offers economies of scale which should give both organisations efficiency savings.”
Warwickshire’s highway network extends to some 3820km and the Coventry network to approximately 860km. By adding some of Coventry’s work to the new contract from May 2011 it will increase the size of the highway contract to around £22m per year.
Cllr Hazel Noonan, Coventry’s cabinet member for City Services, said: "Local authorities, as well as businesses, are under ever increasing financial pressures so we have to explore ways of doing things differently to be more efficient. I welcome this opportunity to work in partnership with Warwickshire County Council to improve the highways in the region."
Colin Knight , Assistant Director of Highway Services at Coventry City Council said “ We have had four meetings with the Warwickshire highway team and are very keen to explore where each highway organisation can benefit from shared knowledge and resources over the coming years.
"There is a lot of scope to improve the condition of the City’s highway network as well as manage the flow of traffic which comes into and around Coventry everyday.“