Balfour Beatty Living Places has beaten Amey to win the new contract to provide highways services across the county from September. These services include maintenance and improvement, street lighting, traffic signals, street cleaning, parks and public rights of way, fleet maintenance and professional consultancy services.

Cllr Harry Bramer, cabinet member for major contracts presented the scoring details of the three shortlisted bidders at the Cabinet meeting last Thursday. He announced Balfour Beatty Living Places as the preferred bidder, Amey LG Limited as the reserve bidder and Costain Limited as second reserve bidder.

Work will now be undertaken to conclude the process and award the final contract in early July with the new arrangements beginning September 1st. There are other contracts still to be negotiated. The Public Realm procurement is one of three major procurements and is being carried out alongside the building repairs and maintenance services and building cleaning services contracts.

Geoff Hughes, director for places and communities said: "These are key frontline services and this procurement has sought commitments to ensure improvements and value for money, bring investment into the highways network, ensure services are responsive to the community and provide contribution to the regeneration of the economy and social capital in the county.

"We are pleased we were able to stick to a very tight procurement timetable. We had a field of extremely strong bidders and we're genuinely thankful for the hard work they've put in to this process."

"I'd like to thank the bidders for their courteous, prompt and productive way they have all participated. I am confident that the resulting contract will achieve savings and help the council balance its budgets in the coming years."

Last July, Herefordshire Council's cabinet agreed to begin the process to re-procure these services which involved a major procurement exercise taking place during the past eight months for a new ten year contract worth in the region of £200million.

For more stories in full please see this week's Ross Gazette.