TAXPAYERS' money will be saved under plans for two Suffolk district councils to approve a joint working agreement, it has been claimed.Suffolk Coastal and Waveney councils already share a chief executive and a head of planning but now look set to make the arrangement more formal.

TAXPAYERS' money will be saved under plans for two Suffolk district councils to approve a joint working agreement, it has been claimed.

Suffolk Coastal and Waveney councils already share a chief executive and a head of planning but now look set to make the arrangement more formal.

The councils, which cover adjoining areas of Suffolk, aim to pool resources and make more savings when they approve the joint working agreement in the near future.

Mark Bee, leader of Waveney District Council, and Ray Herring, leader of Suffolk Coastal District Council, said in a joint statement: “We are about to agree to work with each other as preferred partners, which means that we will seek, where appropriate, to share resources and deliver services jointly.

“Our goal is to be more efficient and to provide better value for money for our customers and this new partnership will go a long way to helping us achieve this.

“We already share a chief executive and a head of planning services, while an example of joint working has been our audit partnership which takes in both councils as well as Ipswich, with all three councils sharing the same audit manager.

“Both our councils have also been working together with the county council and indeed the Environment Agency to provide better coastal management.”

They added: “Both our councils share a commitment to becoming more efficient and both of us can point to our successes in controlling our budgets.

“But we have achieved this at the same time as having proven successes in improving the quality of the services we provide for our communities.

“Yes, there is also a recognition that for some services it might be better for either of us to work with a different council or indeed to include other councils into our joint working, however our ongoing, successful joint working shows that this relationship is clearly already a good fit.”

Both Waveney and Suffolk Coastal have responsibility for Suffolk coastline's management, as well as market towns, seaside resorts and shared road and rail links.