THE chief executive of Cumbria County Council says the authority is 'fully committed' to learning lessons from a legal dispute which cost taxpayers millions of pounds.

The council was left with a £21.6m bill after a dispute with highways contractor Amey, which looked after roads maintenance between 2005 and 2012 in a £272m contract.

During the contract, the council expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the services received and as such withheld money. This resulted in a long and complex legal dispute with Amey.

Following Amey’s claim for £30m, a figure which the council opposed, a judge at the Manchester Technology and Construction Court awarded largely in favour of Amey.

CCC was ordered to pay just under £5.4 million, a percentage of Amey's costs, and its own legal costs, adding up to approximately £21.6 million.

Following the completion of the court case, CCC commissioned a lessons learned report to learn from the experience.

The report includes a series of recommendations relating to the need to be more rigorous in its contract management approach; ensuring robust performance and relationship management arrangements are in place; greater assessment and understanding of risk, especially at key decision points; and clearer dispute resolution processes to ensure issues are resolved at the earliest possible stage.

And now the council's Audit and Assurance Committee has agreed an action plan to set those recommendations in motion.

Cllr Hilary Carrick, chair of audit and assurance committee said: "What is now important is that the council focuses its efforts on implementing the agreed action plan and delivering those improvements going forward. The committee will review progress against the action plan on a regular basis to assure itself of delivery.”

Katherine Fairclough, chief executive of CCC, responding to the committee’s decision said: “We are fully committed to learning from this. The audit and assurance committee has considered the report and the action plan.

"Committee members heard the commitment from senior officers, and myself, to deliver the action plan and that steps have already been taken to respond to the recommendations in the report.”

The review process was overseen by an experienced chief executive from another council to ensure that the process was independent.

David Parr, chief executive of Halton Borough Council in his role as senior external peer said: "The lessons learned process has been comprehensive, thorough and robust. The final report provides an accurate review of the history, identifies the lessons to be learned and includes a number of recommendations.

"From the outset, I have been impressed that the council has shown maturity and honesty to proactively progress a lessons learned review.

"I have seen evidence that progress has already been made in a number of areas and it is now important that the council progresses the recommendations and delivers the associated action plan to ensure effective and sustainable change is achieved.”