Sheffield staff transfer is a force for change

02 April 2008

Up to 800 of Sheffield City Council’s highways staff will transfer to the contractor appointed to oversee £663M of private-finance initiative funding.

The council said between 600 and 800 of its Street Force department would be involved in the contract, which is expected to be drawn up over the next three years.

However, a spokesman said there were currently ‘some grey areas’, with uncertainty over the destiny of some of its highways staff, as well as existing depots.

The Government announced last week that Sheffield would share more than £1bn of highways private-finance initiative funding with the London Borough of Hounslow and Isle of Wight Council (Surveyor, 27 March 2008).

However, the latter two authorities said it was too early to comment on employee involvement. City of York Council and the London Borough of Redbridge, which both missed out in the final round of bidding, were upbeat about their loss, despite each spending £140,000 on their bids.

York’s head of highway infrastructure, Paul Thackray, said the council had gained ‘considerable experience and value’ from the expression of interest process and hoped to bid in the next round of funding.

‘The council will be in an advantageous position to look again at highway maintenance PFI in a few years’ time when the Department for Transport announces the next tranche, should members of the council choose to take this option,’ he added. A spokesperson for Redbridge said: ‘We remain positive about this approach to tackling the borough’s growing highways maintenance problems and hope to be among those authorities selected in the next round of PFIs.

‘We spent around £140,000 over two years on external consultants and other costs, but this incorporated not only the bid work, but also work which needed to be carried out on the highways asset management plan. We will be able to use the information on the next bid.’

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