In December 2012, Suffolk County Council announced Balfour Beatty Living Places as the Preferred Bidder for the contract to maintain and improve Suffolk's highways from 1st April 2013.

Following a period of extensive and constructive discussion with Balfour Beatty Living Places, Suffolk County Council has not been able to confirm and clarify commitments made to the point where it can provisionally award the contract. It has therefore been decided that the procurement process will revert to the previous stage where Suffolk County Council can liaise with any, or all, of the bidders who submitted final tenders (including Balfour Beatty Living Places), before again identifying a preferred bidder.

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This does not affect the county council's ambition to identify a private sector company that will be responsible for the design and implementation of highway maintenance and improvement works, winter gritting, street lighting, traffic signals and bridge works throughout the county.

A key objective to achieve £2 million of recurring revenue savings in year 2013/14 and to help the council’s transport department achieve efficiency savings of 1.5% per year remains in place.

Lucy Robinson, Suffolk County Council's director of economy, skills and environment, said: "We are of course disappointed not to be moving forward as announced in December however I'd like to reassure people that this does not affect our overall ambition for highways maintenance in Suffolk. Providing a quality service whilst saving taxpayers money remains our focus and the county council is continuing work towards that aim.

"This does mean a delay to the start of the new contract as we want to ensure that the matter is handled properly, that staff are kept informed and that a smooth transition is made. We will therefore be working on interim arrangements to ensure that service delivery is uninterrupted."

(CD/GK)