Milestone Infrastructure has won Suffolk's new highways services contract, which will begin on 1 October 2023.

Following an extensive procurement exercise, Suffolk County Council has confirmed Milestone will be its new contract partner for up to 20 years.

The new partnership, which is worth in the region of £800 million - £1 billion, will be delivering highway projects and improvements across Suffolk, including but not limited to maintaining roads, pavements and rights of way, drainage, hedge trimming, construction of new road schemes, snow-clearing and gritting.

When searching for its new highways partner, the county council worked with leading industry analysts to understand the different types of arrangements that other local authorities have in place, to look at which specialist providers are in the marketplace, and to find out what aspects of contract agreement may work best for Suffolk.

The council wanted the new contract to focus on delivering greater social value, utilising local skills and talent, giving young people the opportunity to work in the sector as well as building on the council’s commitment to carbon reduction and protecting the environment.

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A rigorous procurement exercise was carried out over many months, with various stages of discussions with service providers, to evolve their solutions to meet the various contractual requirements and deliver an effective and efficient highway service for Suffolk. Final submissions were evaluated and extensively moderated before the final winning contract was awarded.

Matthew Riches, Operations Director for Milestone, said: "Milestone is delighted to be partnering with Suffolk County Council to provide safer highways for all users of the county network. In this new partnership, we are committed to maintaining the safest possible network for local communities, businesses and the travelling public, all year round.

"Our commitment to exceptional delivery will also focus on working collaboratively with the council to meet their net-zero carbon targets and enhancing biodiversity.

"We are committed to creating local jobs for local people to support our delivery, in addition to local supply chain partners adding value to the Suffolk economy. We take pride in supporting our local community and look forward to meeting and working with the residents and businesses of Suffolk from October."

Councillor Paul West, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for Ipswich, operational highways, said: "The search for a new contractor to deliver our highways services has finally come to completion, and I am delighted to welcome our new highway partner, Milestone, to Suffolk.

"We wanted to find an organisation who could provide excellent services and value for our residents, while sharing our ambition and ideas to innovate in improving delivery of services, communicating more effectively with customers and sharing our commitment to reducing carbon use.

"Services related to our highways will in some way impact all those living, working or travelling in our county; this is why it was essential that we went through such a rigorous process to ensure we found the best possible fit for what we needed here in Suffolk."