Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

So it's 'Goodbye Mouchel, hello Atkins'.

The contract to provide technical support for the maintenance and management of the county’s highways was discussed and approved by councillors at a cabinet meeting yesterday.

A number of consultancy companies were interested in bidding for the contract and cabinet members reviewed the results of this tendering process and awarded a highways consultancy contract to Atkins to provide specialist technical advice and support in a number of areas for the next five years.

The contract award is subject to a mandatory 10 day 'cooling off' period.

The specialist advice provided by Atkins will include bridge design, major highway reconstruction and surfacing, traffic engineering, transport planning, supervising contractors’ work, street lighting maintenance and achieving green targets.

The Cabinet is confident that Atkins, as one of the largest infrastructure construction companies in the UK, will provide the level of quality knowledge, advice and support that is right for this critical and important service. It is vital that WC can access the very best technical knowledge to ensure that Wiltshire’s roads are safe and meet the traffic demands.

Atkins was selected on the basis they meet the criteria on both quality and cost and will complement the WC in-house team providing the right level of expertise to achieve the environmental improvements to our roads in Wiltshire.

Councillor Dick Tonge, on behalf of the council, would like to take this opportunity to thank Mouchel for supporting the council in delivering the highways service since 1999. The service has improved during this period and Mouchel has played a significant role in this achievement.