An East Midland highway alliance has identified savings of almost £700,000 in the first year of its four-year framework agreement.

Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire County Councils, together with engineering consultant Scott Wilson, launched the 3 Counties Alliance Partnership (3CAP) in July last year, in a bid to improve delivery of highway and other professional services by sharing resources and working together across county boundaries.

The 3CAP framework, which operates under the banner of the Midlands Highway Alliance – an agreement between 10 councils to focus on regional procurement and the delivery of highways maintenance and capital works through framework agreements – has commissioned more than 60 projects so far.

These range from highways and traffic design, waste management and landfill remediation, transport studies, development control and geotechnics to health and safety advice.

A joint Institution of Civil Engineers training agreement is to be established between the counties to encourage development opportunities for graduates in both the private and public sectors. Industry-standard indicators are used to measure delivery against time and budget, and client officer satisfaction. Performance is then compared with external benchmarks through the National Highway Design Benchmarking Club.