Bury and Bolton councils form new strategic alliance

Date published: 30/11/2009

Bury and Bolton Councils have come together to form a new strategic alliance in order to develop partnership and joint working opportunities.

It is anticipated this will lead to the provision of more efficient and effective services to the council tax payers of Bury and Bolton.

Reports detailing the new alliance will be taken to Bury Council’s executive on December 2 and to Bolton Council on December 7.

If approved, the two councils would enter into a Memorandum of Understanding to allow them to develop partnership working and joint working opportunities which can make use of the geographical closeness of both boroughs. The boroughs already have a positive relationship as the two councils have similar cultures of continuous improvement, and shared learning already takes place between members of the senior management teams.

Issues which could be looked at under this new alliance include examining how the delivery of similar services in both boroughs could be improved and also looking at how services can run more efficiently. One of the first key issues to be considered by the alliance is the way transport services are procured and managed by both councils.

Councillor Bob Bibby, leader of Bury Council, said: “This joint working initiative builds on the work we are already doing with other public sector services in Bury as part of Team Bury and with other local authorities in Greater Manchester.

“The results of this initiative will allow us to produce benefits for the local community which are beyond what we can do as an individual authority. We want to make sure that the two councils share intelligence and key data so we can learn together how improvements can be made to services. This is an exciting project for Bury to be involved in and I look forward to working closely with my colleagues in Bolton.”

Councillor Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, said: “We realise that there are benefits from both councils for sharing and potentially combining information, skills and efforts to deliver on the priorities for both Bury and Bolton. We know that partnerships are successful and significant benefits can be delivered to the local population by ensuring that there is joined-up thinking between different organisations. From working with Bury we want to take this one step further and develop a relationship which has positive and innovative outcomes for the residents of both boroughs.”