Roads contract has left unholy mess

DEAR Editor, Amey still have a lot to do to bring the standard of roads and pavements in Birmingham up to scratch (Council Victory over £2.7bn city contractor that ignored road repairs, Post, March 8)

The concept of a PFI project is that the public sector pays more to the contractor, in return for the contractor taking on more of the risk. That means that in some years, for example when the weather is poor, the contractor will expect to lose money.

It will cost them more to keep the quality of the roads and pavements, specified in the contract, the same.

The Amey PFI was sold to the city on the basis that the contractor would find it easier to borrow money than the council and could therefore invest up front to bring the road network up to scratch.

Thereafter it would cost much less to maintain than if it requires constant reactive maintenance and patching.

This was achieved, for example, with the street lighting, when Amey installed energyefficient lights.

But not, it would seem, with the basic maintenance of the roads, where the number of potholes appears to be more than ever before, many of them appearing where roads have previously been patched.

In the present situation, Amey should be held to account to provide the quality of road maintenance specified in the contract.

Once the roads are back in good shape, the costs of maintaining them should be less.

If they do not do this, the council should not flinch from taking them to court again.

Any council that deals with the private sector has to understand the detail of the contracts it signs, monitor carefully, and be as business-like as a private sector client in obtaining what it has paid for. Andrew Coulson, Honorary Alderman,

Northfield