Highways Wokingham specialists on the right track through pioneering contracts
New highways and transport specialists have been amalgamated into Wokingham Borough Council’s place and neighbourhoods service to create a more cost effective and efficient service under pioneering new contracts worth more than £6 million per year.
The Wokingham council is one of the first in the UK to take advantage of a new EU tendering process to appoint specialists, in a bid to provide even better services for everyone who lives, works and visits the Wokingham Borough.
WSP, a company that specialises in environmental and road services, was appointed as the sole highways and transport consultancy partner of the council earlier this year, after successfully bidding for the contract under the EU’s competitive dialogue tendering process.
This parallels the reappointment of Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services to provide highways maintenance, including emergency repair and resurfacing, across the Wokingham borough through the same EU competitive dialogue process.
This is a new process that is available to all public sector organisations to increase quality and tailored contracts with private sector specialist companies. However, only a handful of contracts have been signed under the process across the continent and they are believed to be the first set of contracts signed to offer a fully comprehensive range of highways and transport services via the new process.
WSP staff were integrated into the council last month, when the new contract started. They will provide a range of highways related services from the civic offices at Shute End, until the contract expires in March 2018.
Road safety, bridge maintenance, traffic signals, urban traffic control, transport planning and general traffic management will be the main areas that WSP will look after on behalf of the council.
Maintenance of the Wokingham borough’s roads will continue to be done by Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services, who have been working with the council for the past three years.
Mark Moon, general manager place and neighbourhood services, said: “Competitive dialogue was a complex process to go through but it was an essential process that needed to take place to ensure that cost effective and efficient highways and transport services are available to everyone who lives, works and visits the Wokingham Borough.
“It’s one of the first contracts to be signed under the EU’s competitive dialogue process, which meant we were able to ask those companies competing for the contract to provide the services we want and need in the borough in a more open and constructive way.
“WSP staff offering services from road safety to traffic management are now based at Shute End, making it much easier for all staff working together on projects to communicate effectively, which will benefit the whole community.”
Cllr Keith Baker, executive member for Wokingham highways and transport, added: “With radical changes in the process for investigating and implementing highways requests from residents, councillors and parish and town councils, it was inevitable that the volume of requests would increase. Therefore it was vital that we engaged consultants that could cope with the increased volume in a timely and cost effective manner. I believe that WSP, together with the co-location, will match our requirements and, more importantly, go a long way to match residents expectations."
The Wokingham council is one of the first in the UK to take advantage of a new EU tendering process to appoint specialists, in a bid to provide even better services for everyone who lives, works and visits the Wokingham Borough.
WSP, a company that specialises in environmental and road services, was appointed as the sole highways and transport consultancy partner of the council earlier this year, after successfully bidding for the contract under the EU’s competitive dialogue tendering process.
This parallels the reappointment of Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services to provide highways maintenance, including emergency repair and resurfacing, across the Wokingham borough through the same EU competitive dialogue process.
This is a new process that is available to all public sector organisations to increase quality and tailored contracts with private sector specialist companies. However, only a handful of contracts have been signed under the process across the continent and they are believed to be the first set of contracts signed to offer a fully comprehensive range of highways and transport services via the new process.
WSP staff were integrated into the council last month, when the new contract started. They will provide a range of highways related services from the civic offices at Shute End, until the contract expires in March 2018.
Road safety, bridge maintenance, traffic signals, urban traffic control, transport planning and general traffic management will be the main areas that WSP will look after on behalf of the council.
Maintenance of the Wokingham borough’s roads will continue to be done by Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services, who have been working with the council for the past three years.
Mark Moon, general manager place and neighbourhood services, said: “Competitive dialogue was a complex process to go through but it was an essential process that needed to take place to ensure that cost effective and efficient highways and transport services are available to everyone who lives, works and visits the Wokingham Borough.
“It’s one of the first contracts to be signed under the EU’s competitive dialogue process, which meant we were able to ask those companies competing for the contract to provide the services we want and need in the borough in a more open and constructive way.
“WSP staff offering services from road safety to traffic management are now based at Shute End, making it much easier for all staff working together on projects to communicate effectively, which will benefit the whole community.”
Cllr Keith Baker, executive member for Wokingham highways and transport, added: “With radical changes in the process for investigating and implementing highways requests from residents, councillors and parish and town councils, it was inevitable that the volume of requests would increase. Therefore it was vital that we engaged consultants that could cope with the increased volume in a timely and cost effective manner. I believe that WSP, together with the co-location, will match our requirements and, more importantly, go a long way to match residents expectations."
Wokingham Borough Council
<< Home