Using local firms is Wight strategy for £250M PFI deal

20 August 2009

Isle of Wight Council’s cabinet has approved the outline business case (OBC) for its highways private-finance initiative (PFI) project.

The council’s PFI team has increased the OBC to include services such as CCTV handling, roadside maintenance and on and off-street parking – which has boosted the value of the PFI to a maximum of £250M.

The chosen PFI company will also be required to improve and maintain a number of services over the course of the 25-year contract, including the island’s highways, footways, cycleways, bridges and street lighting.

Jay Jayasundara, the council’s PFI project director, said a bid would be made to the Department for Transport (DfT) by the end of the month, and a bidders day would be staged on 3 September, while procurement would commence in January 2010.

‘This is a really exciting opportunity for the island,’ he said. ‘It is not just about putting asphalt on the roads, it is about £1 to 2bn worth of investment. We are energising local people to see how they can be involved. We want to keep this as local as possible since, being an island, we are surrounded by water and it would cost a lot of money for an outside firm to bring equipment over.

‘It makes sense to make use of the island’s full capacity as long as local firms are commercially viable – this is a huge opportunity to create a highways industry on the Isle of Wight.’

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