LATCos - Could these be a Better Way to Keep our Roads in Good Condition?

Local Authority Trading Companies - or LATCos in the jargon - are not new. They are authorised under the 2003 Local Government Act.

Perhaps it's time to think about a LATCo to handle basic highway maintenance in our county?

For a long time now, Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) has outsourced most of its highway maintenance and design work under long term contracts. The current contract with Ringway has been in place since 2012 and is worth £182 million.

However, these contracts need more checking and management than HCC seems able to carry out. The public's view certainly is that the results for this contract - like the one before it - always fail to meet their expectations.

Nevertheless, despite poor contract management HCC still clawed back £1.2 million for proven poor workmanship over the last 5 years - and further deductions are pending.

You might think that they may have learned the lesson at the end of the first 5 years - but no! The Tory councillors decided to extend the contract for another 5 years.

There appears to be have been no market testing. The Tories say that results are getting better.

This could be true if fewer penalties really does mean performance is improving, but Lib Dems say, "This is not the experience of residents. It could just mean Ringway are getting better at gaming their targets - or even just that HCC is catching them out less! These contracts are working no better in other parts of the country. Completely new arrangements should be explored."

"Southampton is said to be setting up a Local Authority Trading Company (LATCo) to run waste collection and other public services and savings could be reinvested into council services."

"Some highway work is already directly contracted and this works much better. Why not a LATCo like Southampton, but for routine highway repair and maintenance? It could hardly be worse than what we have at the moment - and it could be a lot cheaper!"