Councils steer clear of Scots roads deal

None of the councils that opposed the award of the Scottish Executive's £350m trunk road maintenance contracts four years ago will be rebidding for the work after admitting that they cannot do better than the incumbent contractors.
Before the award of the five-year schemes in spring 2001, both South Lanarkshire Council and Highland Council lodged complaints and court action against the Executive because they felt their DLOs were being squeezed out of the work.
The North West and North East contracts were even-tually awarded to BEAR (Babtie, Ennstone and Ringway) and the South West and South East contracts to Amey Infrastructure Services.
However, councillor Charlie King, chairman of Highland Council's transport environmental services committee, said the successful contractors had found the work tougher than expected and the council would not be interested in pitching for the
new contracts.
"I am aware of increasing criticism of the level of maintenance on the trunk road network in our area," he said.
"The trouble is that there is simply not enough money in the contract to allow BEAR to do what the public expects.
"The Executive said it could save £25m a year through the new contract. So the conclusion is that you get what you pay for," King said.
"Our service has changed significantly since the days when we provided an agency service on trunk roads and we also cannot afford to run the risk of losing substantial sums on the contract. So we will not be bidding."
However, King added: "We will be interested in bidding for subcontracting work."
n The retendering of the second round of trunk roads contracts (CJ 12 January) could be further hampered after news that Scottish National Party MSP Fergus Ewing has called for an inquiry into the trunk road contracts before two of the four contracts are retendered in May.
"There are issues with the contract specifications," he told CJ.