Issue - meetings

Report of the Assistant Director - Highways and Public Protection

The Cabinet considered the report of the Assistant Director - Highways and Public Protection seeking approval to invite tenders through the appropriate procurement route for the provision of transport technical support services to assist in the preparation of business cases, funding bids and the development and management of transport investment projects.

Decisions Made:

That

(1)           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, be approved;

(2)      the contract period of 4 years from 1January 2026 to 31 December 2029, with an option to extend on a year-by-year basis to 31December 2032 subject to performance, be authorised; and

(3)      delegated authority be granted to the Assistant Director - Highways and Public Protection to award the Contract resulting from the procurement and any extensions, subject to consultation with the Cabinet Member - Housing and Highways.

Reasons for the Decisions:

Without the provision of a Transport Technical Services Support supplier, there would be insufficient resource to deliver the schemes, initiatives and policy development within the Transport Capital Programme. This would impact on the funding the Council was likely to secure in the future.

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 was not practicable within current budget constraints and recruitment challenges.

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