Re: Why not get together ?
It's been tried several times, and generally failed. It's bad enough trying to get one council to decide what they actually want among all their various factions, let alone a group of them getting together and trying to come up with something they can agree among themselves and get buy-in from all their respective factions.
And having seen ESCC from the inside many years ago I wish whoever wins this tender the very best of luck as they're going to need it. I was so relieved when a subsequent employer did a little due diligence and then decided they really didn't need that level of pain.