Councils say sharing more facilities is key to save cash
Sharing space is one way the authorities believe they are 'better together'.
Politics & local government
Teams from North Yorkshire County Council and Selby District Council are sharing office space as part of a drive to improve services and increase efficiency.
The district council’s housing supervisors have moved from their industrial estate premises into the council council’s area highways office. They and their team of tradesmen, including joiners, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers and plasterers, are responsible for maintaining the district council’s housing stock.
The county council’s highways team manages routine highways maintenance and improvement projects across the district from the office.
Sharing offices and working alongside each other daily allows the teams to share expertise, develop new and streamlined working practises, collaborate more effectively and deliver a better service for residents and businesses in Selby district. The premises will also provide a secure location for tradesmen’s vehicles and storage of equipment and materials.
The county council’s integrated passenger transport team also uses the depot to store buses used to take clients to activities and staff share desks at the depot. The county council’s highways contractor, Ringway, also stores vehicles at the depot.
This is one example of how the County Council and District Council are working together to make the best use of resources. Selby-based County Council staff are a regular fixture at the District Council offices. By sharing space, more expensive town centre leases can be surrendered, providing a saving for one council and an income for the other. It also offers more opportunities for staff who share an office to work better together.
Sharing space is one aspect of the innovative Better Together partnership between Selby District Council and North Yorkshire County Council.
Councillor Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council, said: “We’ve called it Better Together because we know we can improve services and increase efficiency for people who live, work or visit the area when both councils work better together. We’re sharing staff, expertise and skills. We’re also sharing finance, legal and business support expertise and are working towards sharing IT services.”
Councillor Mark Crane, leader of Selby District Council, added: “Reducing costs is a key aspect of the partnership and so far we have saved more than £100,000 and are working on a package of projects which could save around £1.4m by 2020. This is just the start. There are plans for more collaborative projects to help us continue to make savings while delivering improved services.”
This type of partnership is unusual in local government and is being strongly supported by central government grant funding, including £137,000 to help the county council develop a new website for the district council and help to improve systems used to serve customers who contact the council.
The councils have also been granted £555,000 to help them deliver better services to communities and give residents and businesses a greater role in the design and delivery of their local services.