Atkins wins Peterborough highways contract

Peterborough City Council has announced Atkins as its preferred bidder to deliver highways services in a deal worth £7.6 million a year.

Atkins will carry out road maintenance, street lighting and gulley cleansing under a new 10-year contract which could save in the region of £750,000 a year.

Council leader Marco Cereste has been asked to sign off the decision to appoint Atkins to provide highways services for the city council from 1 October 2013.

The announcement of Atkins as the preferred bidder follows a year-long tender process. The new contract worth £7.6 million annually will run for 10 years, with the ability to extend it for two further five-year periods.

Councillor Marco Cereste, leader of the council and cabinet member for growth, strategic planning, housing, economic development and business engagement, said: "This new contract has the potential to save the council and therefore its taxpayers in the region of £7.5 million in the next 10 years, which at a time when we are receiving less money from Government, can be re-invested into providing other services for residents.

"Many of the services that this new contract will provide are essential, such as pothole repairs, traffic light maintenance and gulley cleansing. We have a duty to provide these services for our residents, however renegotiating the existing four contracts into one, thus reducing the cost of managing the contracts, means we can continue to provide high quality services for less money."

Simon Machen, head of planning, transport and engineering for Peterborough City Council, added: "The process to reach a preferred bidder appointment has rightly been a detailed one. We received four good bids and these were evaluated thoroughly on the quality of service they could offer and the price they could provide these services for. Our next steps will be to work with Atkins to finalise the contract details. After the contract is signed, we will work closely together to draw up detailed implementation plans, with the plan to commence work on 1 October 2013."