Five councils across the north are joining forces to improve the crumbling roads network.
The Aberdeen city and shire local authorities have formed an alliance with their counterparts in Angus, Argyll and Bute, Highland, Moray and the Western Isles.
The “northern roads collaboration joint committee” is likely to meet at least quarterly and will be an addition to the councils’ respective transport committees.
It is one of several collaborations mooted last summer as a way of pooling resources for major projects to ease mounting budget pressures.
Aberdeenshire Council deputy leader Peter Argyle, who also heads the Nestrans transport agency, said: “Increasingly, I think, local authorities will need to work together on a range of services and roads is clearly one that offers a lot of scope for cross-boundary working and even sharing of equipment.
“It’s about sharing ways of working rather than budgets. There’s a lot to be worked out.”
Amid fierce opposition in some areas to a perceived growing “centralisation” of public services, he was optimistic that this form or voluntary partnership would be beneficial.
Highland Council unanimously backed the idea.
Allan Henderson, chairman of its “places committee” which includes transport, said: “It’ll help us address the big-ticket roads issues that affect us all. I’m convinced we’ll all benefit from the next five years of the joint committee.”
Highland director of community services William Gilfillan believed the pact provided “an opportunity to improve services to the public and to do a lot more together in collaboration.”
It is understood that Aberdeenshire Council will take the role of “lead authority” over its first year.
Annual reports on its activities and achievements will be fed back to members. The joint committee’s first meeting is expected to be at the end of the summer.
Highland councillors last year backed proposals to pool skills with Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire councils by merging their procurement departments in an arrangement with a potential for saving the trio millions of pounds each year.
The merger of departments responsible for buying all supplies and equipment promises a combined purchasing power of more than £1billion and cumulative savings of £22million over five years – without posing a threat to existing council jobs, according to Highland Council directors.
