Three East Midlands county councils have joined together in an alliance which aims to deliver highways services more efficiently.
Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire county councils have recently signed a Three Counties Alliance (3CA) in an attempt to link the councils’ in-house resources and get greater economies of scale for procurement of suppliers. The alliance was mooted because of the councils sharing common demands and interests, but it still allowed the authorities to remain flexible and responsive in order to address their individual needs, said Matthew Lugg, Leicestershire County Council highways and transportation director. ‘If we work in collaboration, there would be a lot of scope for mutual benefit,’ he added.
The agreement provides opportunities including the sharing of in-house resources, rationalising systems and procedures, providing consistency in approach and becoming a model for future regional partnerships. The authorities would save money and resources by employing a single contractor to undertake works, instead of taking on three individual suppliers. With joint purchasing, it gave them greater power to drive down prices, Lugg said. The first major joint project was to appoint a single engineering consultant to work with the three counties to provide highway design and consultancy support.

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