Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Highways and Public Protection.

The Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Highways and Public Protection in relation to the procurement of Transport Technical Support Services.

Decision Made:       That the Cabinet:

(1)      approved the tender process to procure the provision of transport technical support services, to be published on The Chest using an Open Tender process, as outlined in the report;

(2)     authorised the contract period of 2 years from 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2023 with an option to extend on a year by year basis to 31^st December 2025 subject to performance; and

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(3)      granted delegated authority to the Head of Highways and Public Protection to award the Contract resulting from the procurement and any extension, subject to consultation with Cabinet Member Locality Services.

Reasons for the Decisions:

The Council has an ongoing programme of strategic transport investment. Development of these proposals, including the preparation of business cases and funding bids, requires a range of technical capabilities and a requirement to respond at short notice to

bidding opportunities. The Council does not have the capability or capacity to undertake all the elements of work involved in developing and delivering this programme. It is proposed to procure a contract where the specialist services the Council needs to be able to develop and deliver the programme of strategic investment can be provided at short notice.

A contract has existed for transport technical support services since early 2018. This was a three year arrangement, extended for a further year, which will end in December 2021.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

The provision of all the specialist skills and capabilities through an in-house team would require substantial additional recruitment which is not practicable within current budget constraints and controls on recruitment.

Individual schemes could continue to be procured individually and independently through separate procurement processes. This would require officer time and resources for each procurement. In some situations, the timescales imposed for submitting proposals and funding bids mean that a stand-alone procurement process is either not feasible or would substantially detract from the time available for completing the submission. This approach would also mean that there is much less potential to develop strong working relationships with an individual service provider and for them to develop local knowledge.