Cost-cutting South East councils share work

Two more shared services deals have been set out by South East councils as authorities team up to save cash.

East Sussex County Council is involved with both sets of plans - one with Surrey County Council and the other with Medway Council.

Seven South East authorities have been working together to find savings in the SE7 partnership.

East Sussex is due to merge payroll and accounts with Surrey and share communications work with Medway.

The Surrey/East Sussex deal will see the councils doing IT deals together and also share a data centre, and the Medway/East Sussex deal will see both councils develop a regional shared communications agency.

Final decisions on both of the schemes are to be made this year.