Norfolk County Council is set to make recurring savings of £200,000 a year after agreeing a new contract with TNT to deliver its post.

The savings comes after the Government funded Regional Centre of Excellence (East) sponsored a project to look at the volumes of post that Norfolk County Council sends.

A tender was issued by the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) - a consortium of local councils - whose collaborative purchasing power has been used to go to the market following the deregulation of mail services earlier this year.

Now similar savings could be made by other councils in Eastern England following Norfolk’s pioneering example which ended with TNT and another firm locked in a reverse e-auction.

The County Council has a three-year £30m efficiency savings drive working across all departments in Norfolk County Council to make every penny of taxpayers’ money count.

A number of other e-auctions will be held with other councils in Eastern England before Christmas for a range of equipment including cleaning products, protective footwear and office furniture.

Norfolk’s first-ever reverse Internet auction saw the County Council and its partners secure savings in excess of £230,000 when 1000 desktop computers were bought.

Those wishing to secure the contract under cut each other as the auction continues, with the contractor who bids the lowest securing the contract - subject to conditions being met.

There are currently 16 companies licensed to provide mail services in the UK and six of those have an interest in supplying the local authority market.

Posted: 09|8|06 at 7:40 am. Filed under: UK News.