Oxfordshire County Council is currently in contract with Milestone Infrastructure until 31 March 2025, with no ability to further extend the contract. In October 2022, council officers were given the mandate to commence work to develop and deliver a new highway maintenance contract to operate from April 2025. In October 2023, approval was given by Cabinet to commence a procurement. The new contract covers the below service areas.

• Routine maintenance, i.e., defects repairs, drainage, highway grass cutting, signs and lines
• Winter maintenance, including gritting
• Delivery of the capital maintenance/renewal schemes
• Structures –maintenance and improvement 
• Small new infrastructure and improvement works <£750k
• Arboricultural service and support
• Countryside and Public Right of Way maintenance
• Minor traffic schemes/works

The current contract is based on a ‘Single Managing Agent’ provider model, meaning that whilst core decision-making lies with the County Council, a large element of delivery services are contracted to a single contractor (or ‘managing agent’) who designs, manages and co-ordinate works on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council.  They have direct management, design and some delivery resource, but specialist professional services and some works (such as surfacing) are contracted out.

Between October 2022 and March 2023, the County Council undertook an optioneering exercise to determine the most appropriate model for Oxfordshire. To deliver this the County Council partnered with specialist consultants DMSQD to complete a review of existing, appropriate delivery model types to align them to council priorities. This exercise identified the ‘Single Managing Agent’ model was still the most appropriate model for Oxfordshire but also identified the benefits of using existing frameworks to procure higher value or complex works and increasing the amount of in-house resource to support key functions i.e.

• Design capability
• Prioritisation and programming
• Customer and stakeholder engagement

Officers attended Cabinet in October 2023 to seek approval to commence the procurement of a new contract; this request was approved.

The procurement has been launched and can be found on the South East Business Portal. As the procurement is live, the council would request any further communications to be directed via the procurement portal.

Key milestones