County council and May Gurney win national award

Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment. Click to download

Surrey County Council has won a national award with roads contractor May Gurney for making savings of £6m in a year.

They have been jointly recognised by the Association of Consultant Architects after Surrey’s main contractor saved £4.1m on the previous road maintenance contract covering potholes, winter work and the upkeep of bridges.

May Gurney made a further £1.9m of savings on the previous deals to clean drains and improve road surfaces. Nearly £5m of those savings have been ploughed back into road resurfacing schemes.

At the same time, May Gurney beat the council’s demanding standards, with latest performance figures showing 98% of potholes are fixed or made safe with a temporary repair within 24 hours.

In addition, the national professional body representing architects in private practice recognised the pair for working together to achieve longer term savings with suppliers.

John Furey, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, said: “This is deserved recognition for the incredibly hard work we’re putting in together to improve Surrey’s roads.

“There will be no let-up in our joint efforts to further improve Surrey’s roads and seek out innovative ways of doing things, while providing the very best value for money to our residents.”

The council and May Gurney beat five other shortlisted entries to land the award for innovation in partnering.