Solihull Council has awarded Telent a 10-year traffic signal maintenance contract covering more than 160 highways assets.
Telent will conduct routine, preventative maintenance on junctions, pedestrian crossings, and car park guidance signs and will be responsible for attending to and repairing urgent faults.
The firm will also provide a suite of fault management and asset management systems and deliver new and refurbished traffic signal installations.
A council spokesperson told Highways that the annual revenue cost of the contract is approximately £70k although this is variable due to the amount of work that occurs during the year fixing faults and damage from road traffic collisions.
Telent said that for both itself and the council, a mutual commitment to delivering social value in the local area was key to the contract. The firm’s STEM Ambassadors will commit 100 staffing hours per year to provide careers advice and workshops for local Solihull students.
Telent will also be rolling out its dedicated staff wellbeing courses and diversity training for all contractors and subcontractors.
Its business development director for highways, Nigel Weldon, said: ‘As a national organisation with years of regional and local operational experience, we’re well positioned to provide support to local communities and economies.
‘We’re excited about engaging with the local community and are really pleased that Solihull Council shares Telent’s ideal that real social responsibility is so much more than just a box ticking exercise.’
A Solihull Council spokesperson said: ‘As well as maintaining and improving a traffic network to ensure our residents and visitors enjoy safe and efficient travel, we always want to make sure our partners can help us provide a wider benefit to the area. With Telent, we’ve procured the services of a provider with a keen sense of social responsibility that is in alignment with the council’s own values and objectives.’
Telent said it has committed to maintaining spend with local suppliers, with its procurement team offering expert business advice to local social enterprises and SMEs. Under the agreement, all its procurement contracts will include commitments to ethical procurement, including anti-slavery verification.
The contract starts on 1 April and will be administered from Telent’s Wednesbury Regional Service Centre. Telent said it marks its 24th traffic maintenance contract in the UK.
