Councils left out of Agency agenda

Councils hit out at the Highways Agency this week for excluding them from discussions on major changes to the way trunk roads and motorways are to be managed and maintained.

The Highways Agency revealed to CJ last week that the private sector is to be allowed to bid for the management and maintenance of the UK's motorway and trunk road network. The network will be divided into corridors which will then be let on long term maintenance contracts. The first tranche will be up for grabs by April 1996.

The Agency has already held informal discussions with the Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors on its plans, but the county councils - which control the management and maintenance of motorways and trunk roads - have not even been informed about the planned changes.

News of the proposed changes came as a surprise this week to both the Association of County Councils and the County Surveyors Society.

'We are extremely surprised and disappointed that we have not yet been involved in discussions about these plans,' said Terry Thomson, vice president of the CSS. 'We will now be writing for clarification of this issue.'

But Mike Kendricks, president of the County Surveyors Society made a plea that the Highways Agency should not exclude the county councils.

'We are not opposed to competition. The Highways Agency has told us we give value for money, if they want to continue to get this they must not exclude us from their plans.'