Cormac _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
in the county, now solely owned by Nottinghamshire County Council; and Norse in Norfolk. All four organisations collaborate in a similar environment, providing the wider industry with a reference point to help them understand how an arm’ s-length company can operate and the value it can create for its owning authority, while also exploring procurement opportunities, economies of scale and the sharing of best practice and operational solutions.
“ When you aggregate those four companies together, we are certainly among the top three highway maintenance organisations in the UK. Although we are not a single legal entity, are not part of the same group and are not owned by the same shareholders, we share similar objectives and operating environments. The collaboration and the value we can bring to one another, as well as the reference point we provide to
highway authorities and wider stakeholders on how this model works and how it could work for them, is something we consider very important,” Dominic concludes.
Thirty-five years on from its origins in compulsory competitive tendering, Cormac has grown into something perhaps difficult to categorise, as it is part council asset, part commercial operator, part industry reference point for how the Teckal model can actually work in practice. Nonetheless, the Langage Freeport Access Road and Langarth Garden Village projects show what that structure can deliver on the ground. Additionally, Cormac’ s collaboration with other arm’ s-length companies shows what its structure and model can achieve at an industry level. For a company still wholly owned by one council, Cormac’ s reach now extends far beyond Cornwall, both geographically and in terms of its influence across the sector. ■
www. cormacltd. co. uk
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