Portsmouth tree maintenance services

Tender description

Portsmouth City Council ('the council') is inviting tenders from suitably qualified suppliers for the maintenance of trees in Portsmouth's parks and open spaces, including housing areas. The tree population within city parks is predominantly of a mature age with a more mixed age and species type located on housing land. All city owned trees have been surveyed in the last two years with details held on the current tree management software, Arbortrack. The current breakdown of tree location is as follows (all values are approximate): • 8,900 trees in parks and open spaces • 1,250 trees in cemeteries • 6,900 trees on housing land • 2,350 trees on school sites • 1,500 trees on other incidental open space • 550 trees on highways land not maintained by PFI contractor The council is looking for a term contractor to undertake the maintenance of the tree stock within the city and in the three council owned housing areas just north of the city (Leigh Park, Crookhorn and Wecock Farm). Tree works are issued in a mix of reactive enquiries (events) and proactive planned works following regular tree inspections. The vast majority of trees are on publicly accessible land. This procurement does not include the maintenance of the majority of trees on highways as these are currently covered under the council's highways PFI contract; however, some of our trees are growing close to roads and footpaths so there is a need for pedestrian control and occasional traffic management. The council's arboriculture officer will carry out the ongoing surveying of tree stock and maintains data using Arbortrack. A 24 hour/365 day emergency work and response service will be part of the contract. The supplier will be required to respond to works defined as an emergency within two hours of the request from the council's arboriculture officer. Due to the social and political importance of tree maintenance in the city the supplier will need to either have premises in the city or surrounding area or be able to give considerable confidence to the council of their ability to be based outside of the city and still fulfil the contracted services, for example, employees with equipment living in or close to the city that could mobilise quickly if required. Over the period of the contract the council would like to develop the possibility of a partial or fully managed arboriculture service, with the supplier taking on, in part or fully, the: • Surveying of trees • Maintaining and keeping the council tree database up to date • Raising of work orders for the city's tree stock (prior to council approval). In addition the council is seeking further potential collaboration with a view to adopting the same software as the supplier. The council is targeting to have awarded the contract by Friday 10 May 2019 with a subsequent commencement date in early August 2019. The estimated value of the cont...