FOUR Suffolk councils have saved more than £75,000 after cutting their banking costs.

FOUR Suffolk councils have saved more than £75,000 after cutting their banking costs.

Suffolk Coastal District Council saved £76,000 after leading a consortium with Waveney District Council, Ipswich Borough Council and Babergh District Council to see if they could get better value for money on the cost of banking services.

Ray Herring, leader of Suffolk Coastal District Council, said: “By forming a consortium to negotiate with the banks we have been able to achieve total savings of £76,000 over the next five years.

“Over the last few years Suffolk Coastal has worked with other councils to share knowledge and expertise so we can offer better services and better value - an approach which was formalised into the Suffolk Pathfinder project.

“While the recent Government announcement about reviewing local government in Suffolk may well have sounded the death knell for Pathfinder our commitment to identify better ways of working remains firm.

“We will continue to review all parts of our activities to make them even more efficient and we already saved more than £7 million in the last six years.”

The tender for the banking services was won by the Co-operative Bank, which is already used by Ipswich and Babergh.

The new contract will come into effect on April 1 next year.

Suffolk Coastal is now leading another partnership approach to see if they can reduce their insurance bills.

The council is also working with other councils to be more efficient in building control, audit, and legal services.

Its partners include Suffolk Coastal Services, DC Leisure, Norfolk Property Services, and Openwide International.