Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Laing Roads and its consortium partner Amey plc have been awarded a £120 million public and street lighting PFI contract by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council (Wakefield MDC). The project delivery company is co-owned by Laing Roads, a division of John Laing plc, the UK's leading PPP/PFI infrastructure investor and Amey plc, the support services specialist.

The contract, which represents Wakefield MDC’s first Private Finance Initiative project, is designed to renew and upgrade street lighting across the District. Amey Highways, on behalf of the consortium, will assume responsibility for the management, design, installation and ongoing repair and maintenance of the District’s entire lighting stock.

Under the terms of the contract the consortium will replace or upgrade 41,000 street lights which were identified in a Best Value Review in 2000 as being in need of investment. Services under the 25-year contract will commence in January 2004.

Councillor Betty Rhodes, Wakefield District Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment Services, commented: “The partnership is a major step forward for the Council because it will help us make great progress in creating a safer district and an attractive environment, two of the District’s priorities in the community strategy. Better lighting will help to reduce crime and the fear of crime and also should cut down the number of road accidents. We cannot achieve the investment needed from our own budgets. We very much welcome this partnership with the Amey and Laing consortium which means we can start to modernise and renew our dated street lighting stock.”

Derek Potts, Managing Director of Laing Roads, said: "As an investor we are delighted to be involved in this project that will bring many benefits to the residents of Wakefield. Our on-going partnership with Amey on street lighting and highway maintenance projects will enable our respective strengths to be applied to the benefit of the Wakefield and future street lighting projects."

Mel Ewell, Chief Executive of Amey, said: "We are delighted to be Wakefield District Council's chosen partner in this venture. This is an exciting project for Amey which will enhance our position as the UK’s premier Street Lighting PFI service provider. We much look forward to working with Council members and employees in the delivery of a first class street lighting service for the benefit of the Wakefield community.”

The Wakefield project is the second PFI street lighting contract to be undertaken by a partnership between Amey and Laing, following closure of the Walsall street lighting contract in March 2002. Amey and Laing have also been selected as preferred bidder for the Manchester City Council Public Lighting project. The street lighting PFI market continues to grow strongly and is valued at around £4 billion based on local government estimates.

Media Enquiries

Jane Beckley, Head of Communications, Amey plc

T: 01252 533 809
M: 07788 580591

Nadja Vetter / Jackie Range, Cardew Chancery

T: 020 7930 0777

Wakefield MDC, Press & Communications

T: 01924 305295
E: pressoffice@wakefield.gov.uk

Christine Jones, Marketing & PR Manager, John Laing plc

T: 020 7901 3290

Notes to Editors

1. The Wakefield project means that Amey is now responsible for the management and/or maintenance of around half a million lighting units, making it one of the largest street lighting service providers in the UK. Amey already provides highway services to 11 Local Authorities in England and Scotland, serving more than 3.2 million people.
2. In 2002/3 Amey Highways won the pioneering 7-year highways maintenance contract for Hertfordshire County Council, which includes 132,000 street lighting columns. This adds to its street lighting management and maintenance portfolio for Local Government, including Walsall MBC, City of York, Wolverhampton MBC, Calderdale MBC, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire. Amey Highways also manages and maintains five of the Highways Agency's contracts and two similar contracts in South-West and South-East Scotland, all of which contain responsibility for street lighting.
3. Amey, on its first streetlighting PFI with its partner Walsall Council, won the coveted Best Transport Project at the PFI Awards earlier this year.
4. The consortium’s advisers include CMS Cameron McKenna and Masons (legal) and Deloitte and Touche (financial).
5. Amey is a leading provider of integrated business support services to the public and private sector and is working closely with central and local government to develop major PFI/PPP projects, including education, health, transport and defence. Services range from managing large scale transportation infrastructure to delivering professional and back office services, all of which are underpinned by leading-edge technology and a genuine partnering philosophy.
6. Laing Roads, a division of John Laing plc, has a portfolio of nine projects including the M40, M6, A130, A55, and the Severn River Crossing in the UK, Tieyhtiö Nelostie (Finland’s first privately financed infrastructure project), the E39 road (Norway’s first PPP project) and the Walsall Street lighting PFI.
7. John Laing plc, is one of the UK’s leading corporate developers and investors in public infrastructure through the private finance initiative. John Laing plc holds a large and expanding portfolio of investments under three main divisions: Laing Roads, Laing Rail and Equion. The investments span transport, health, education and special purpose government facilities. The Group won the Infrastructure Journal PPP Developer of the Year Award in February 2003 for the second year running. The majority of the investments are within the UK though a number are in continental Europe and the Far East and Pacific regions.
8. The 4ps (Public Private Partnership Programme), a local government agency set up to assist local authorities develop and procure PPP and PFI projects, believes that investment of up to £4 billion is needed over the period of the Government's ten year transport plan to reverse the deterioration in the street lighting infrastructure. David Locke, Executive at the 4ps said: "The transport minister announced on 17 October a new bidding process for local authority PFI street lighting projects, with a first year allocation of £300 million for English local authorities and a promise of more to follow, together with a further £85 million over three years for London Boroughs. The 4ps welcomes the new bidding process and the new allocation of funding support for the street lighting service and believes that the new arrangements announced by the Minister will allow local authorities to address the substantial backlog of investment in the street lighting service."