Information on Loughborough

Alliance secures grant

Posted on 17/08/2009

Leicestershire Councty Council Highways, Transportation & Waste Management

17 August 2009

Alliance secures grant

The Midlands Highway Alliance (MHA) has recently secured funding for £200,000 from the Department for Transport.

The news comes after the MHA put in a bid via and supported by the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership.

This bid sought financial support to three development projects that are potentially set to benefit highways and transportation authorities across the entire Midlands region.

£100,000 was allocated to support the development of the MHA’s new framework contract (called Medium Schemes Framework 1 or “MSF1”) for highway, civil and municipal engineering schemes up to £12million in value.

£50,000 was allocated towards the development of a standard specification and standard detailed drawings, harmonising the existing versions held by Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire County Councils.

This harmonised specification would then be used by all Councils that are members of the MHA seeking to progress schemes under the MSF1 contract.  

£50,000 was also assigned to progress a standard approach to asset management, work that has already been commenced by the Midlands Service Improvement Group.  

Leicestershire County Council acts as the lead authority for the MHA and Director of Highways Transportation and Waste Management, Matthew Lugg, chairs the Alliance.

He commented: “This money is strategically important for the development of the highway, transport and municipal infrastructure in the region. It will help us to build on our already successful and ground-breaking collaboration across the region, delivering further efficiencies as well as service improvements.”

For more details, contact Mark Stevens from Leicestershire County Council on 0116 305 7966 or visit www.leics.gov.uk/mha

Notes to editors

The MHA is a collaboration of twelve Midlands-based councils plus the Highways Agency, who intend to improve performance and make efficiency savings in the delivery of highway services, by working together.

The MHA has 6 work streams that cover: major schemes; medium schemes; term maintenance; professional services; commodities; and the latest workstream, the development of a skills academy.

Each workstream is led by a different authority to ensure that the improvement activity is owned and embedded by local authorities themselves and that the learning and practices are sustainable.

The Midlands Highways Alliance is estimated to save the region £11 million across highways maintenance and improvements by 2011.

At October 2008, just over a year after the MHA’s launch, savings of £1.35 million had already been recorded.