Councils save £3.2m in streetlight deals

Councils from across the country have saved £3.2m through the collaborative procurement of street lighting columns and lamps.

The competitive framework was set up by Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands (IEWM) and the West Midlands Highway Alliance (WMHA), working in partnership with the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO).

Procurement was led by Worcestershire County Council and consisted of a two stage process.

The first stage to develop a competitive framework resulted in 16 suppliers being selected with tendered prices submitted as a benchmark.

The secon stage involved a mini-competition using the reverse auction solution provided by Bravo Solutions via the Buying Solutions framework.

The successful result meant that councils from the West Midlands, London, the East and East Midlands achieved 11% efficiency savings on lamps and 41% on columns. In addition, the prices are fixed for twelve months, at a time when lamp prices have been rising rapidly.

One of the benefits of the framework is that it can be used by all Highway Authorities within the UK, potentially through existing works contracts, highlighting the significant efficiencies that can be achieved from collaboration.

John Hobbs, Director of Environmental Services at Worcestershire County Council and Chair of the West Midlands Highway Alliance, said: “This procurement clearly demonstrates the huge opportunities and benefits by Councils collaborating in standardising specifications, aggregating demand and procuring together.

"The West Midlands Highways Alliance will continue to promote this and other radical and innovative approaches to delivering efficiency savings and improved customer focused services."