A NEW transport service to ferry vulnerable children and adults is about to be set up in Southend in a bid to save £400,000.

At the moment, Southend Council spends £2.2million providing a transport service for children and for adults with learning disabilities using nine private companies and an in-house service.

The council is poised to sign a ten-year contract to set up a joint venture partnership with one private company in a £1.8million deal.

The company will transport about 700 people for the borough’s home-to-school service for children with special educational needs, children’s supervised contact service, respite care for disable children service, dial-a-Ride and transport for adults with learning disabilities.

The council is yet to reveal which company it has chosen but it will hand over £675,000 when the contract is signed at the end of this month to help the new company to buy vehicles.

These will be 16-seater mini-buses rather than nine-seater vehicles currently used.

The new company will have four directors, including two from the council and two from the preferred bidder firm which will have the controlling interest 52 to 48 per cent.

The current arrangements will all expire at end of school term on July 31. It is unlikely the new firm, which has no base in the town yet, will be operational by then. The council is said to have asked current providers to carry on an ad-hoc basis until January 2020.

A council spokesman said: “Following a detailed passenger transport review and consultation, in November 2017, cabinet endorsed the recommendation that a joint venture approach should be taken to deliver what is largely a statutory service, as opposed to having a variety of external contracts.

“A lengthy procurement process has therefore taken place and in March this year, cabinet endorsed the selection of a preferred bidder. This report will now go through the scrutiny process next week.”

The council is yet to confirm which company will join it in running the new service.