Friday (May 18) saw the first meeting of a Joint Committee to consider collaborative opportunities in Roads and Transport across seven local authorities from the North of Scotland.
This is the first formally established committee of this type in the country and evolved from a previous voluntary forum.
Senior politicians from Argyll and Bute, Highland, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Angus met in Aberdeen.
They considered proposals including how to share civil engineering and transport expertise, common issues and solutions relating to road safety, national work on the introduction of graduate apprentice courses in Civil Engineering and the possibility of the collective use of a harbour dredger.
Although unable to attend the first meeting Eilean Siar are also members of the Joint Committee and are fully supportive of the approach being taken.
The Members elected councillor Ellen Morton of Argyll and Bute Council as their first chair.
On accepting the role, she said: “Firstly can I praise our officers for the work they have done to put this Joint Committee in place. Working across authorities can be complex and they recognised the key role that a Joint Committee can play in working collaboratively. It is a common sense approach that we all wish to see taken forward.
"Indeed, given the available resources across the public sector, the formation of this Joint Committee will allow senior decision makers who oversee roads and transport functions in their authorities to consider how best to work together.
"I fully expect us to bring forward a number of initiatives that will allow partners to achieve best value from the funding available to them.
"We have common issues and common purpose across our authorities and I am excited at what we can achieve as we work collectively.“
The papers for the first meeting can be seen at: http://bit.ly/2rTwksu