Recreational, cultural and sporting services

Tender description

Early Market Engagement Exercise Testing the market interest in managing and operating leisure, culture and heritage facilities in Stafford and Stone. Stafford Borough Council is considering contracting out the management and operation of its Leisure and Cultural facilities to an external partner and is seeking the views of interested parties by way of an early market engagement. The Council currently directly operates eight facilities consisting of 3 sport and leisure centres, an athletics track, a theatre, and 3 heritage sites — including Stafford Castle. The facilities receive over three quarters of a million visits annually, and generate circa 3 500 000 GBP of revenue. The Council considers that there is significant potential for experienced and innovative leisure and cultural operator(s) to increase income and reduce operating costs in order to generate a substantial revenue saving to the Council, whilst retaining the provision and quality currently on offer. A business opportunity prospectus provides more detail about the Council's leisure and cultural facilities and its longer term strategic plans and priorities and is available upon request. The prospectus sets out the topics under which the Council wishes to engage with the market, to help inform it of the long term benefits of the alternative management and delivery of its Leisure and Cultural Services. The topics include, but are not limited to the scope of services to be outsourced, the procurement route, preferred contract length, the allocation of major revenue, operating and property risks, the indicative potential savings to the Council, and the scope for increasing usage of the facilities. Organisations that are interested in this opportunity should register their interest at market.engagement@v4services.com no later than 17:00 on Tuesday, 31.5.2016. The prospectus will be forwarded to those organisations that have registered an interest. A questionnaire will also be enclosed which we ask if interested parties could complete and return before the closing date listed within the prospectus.