Nottinghamshire County Council will be helped to maintain its roads by Cornwall Council following the launch of a new joint highways company by the pair of authorities this week.
The new company is called Via – the Latin word for road – and will provide highways and fleet management services in Nottinghamshire. It is due to become operational in July under a 10 year contract, which may extend for a further five years.
“Via provides us with an opportunity to safeguard the continued delivery of a quality highways service for Nottinghamshire well into the future,” said the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council Alan Rhodes. “It will help us to ensure continued improvement against a backdrop of ever-increasing demand on our services.”
The new company was launched on Tuesday at Nottinghamshire County Council’s highways depot in Bilsthorpe, where representatives from both authorities symbolically signed the side of a highways vehicle emblazoned with the Via logo.
Via is owned by the public sector and will be able to trade commercially to gain work of up to 20% of its turnover. It will be supported by expertise from CORSERV, which is part of Cornwall Council’s wholly owned highways company CORMAC.
Cornwall Council’s cabinet member for resources Adam Paynter said: “This is an exciting opportunity for both Cornwall Council and Nottinghamshire County Council and is a reciprocal relationship which will see both authorities learning from each other and sharing knowledge and experience.
“Not only will the launch of the new company create new jobs in both Cornwall and Nottinghamshire, it will also bring additional revenue back into both councils."
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