Agricultural, forestry, horticultural, aquacultural and apicultural services

Tender description

Devon County Council (DCC) is looking to procure a framework agreement for tree inspection, tree surgery and mass tree removal. The tree population is spread widely across Devon and trees are to be found on 650+ occupied properties and alongside up to 12 500 km of DCC highways. This corresponds to an estimate of over 3 000 000 trees across the DCC estate and alongside Highways. Typically in recent years DCC has carried out extensive inspection work, followed up with the removal of dangerous trees. Ash dieback is significantly changing the volumes of tree removal and it is anticipated that, over the course of the new framework, DCC will have need to remove several tens of thousands of trees. It is intended that the framework agreement will operate over a 4-year period. The framework will operate in nine geographical areas which will include Devon's eight district council boundaries plus Plymouth. The framework comprises of three lots as follows: Lot 1: Tree inspection: this is further subdivided into: 1a: Scheduled Inspections of Highways Walked and Driven, 1b: Scheduled inspections of premises, 1c: Ad-hoc inspections of Highways following safety reports, 1d: Ad-Hoc Inspections of Premises following safety reports; Lot 2: Tree surgery: again this is subdivided into: 2a: Non Emergency Highways Tree Surgery, 2b: Non Emergency Premises Tree Surgery, 2c: Emergency Highways Tree Surgery, 2d: Emergency Premises Tree Surgery, 2e: General 3 operative Gang Daily Rate, 2f: Highways Crown Lift work; Lot 3: Bulk felling of highways and non-highways trees (mainly Ash, infected by Ash dieback) on highways of higher usage. DCC wishes to appoint a number of appropriately skilled, competent and accredited contractors to the framework agreement who can be called upon to undertake the work above. Lot 1: this lot is to provide tree inspection services across the nine subdivided regions. It is further subdivided into the following types of inspection: (a) formal, scheduled driven and walked inspections of DCC Highways; (b) formal, scheduled inspections of DCC sites and premises; (c) ad-hoc inspections of DCC highways (all types) trees, following safety reports from members of the public or DCC staff; (d) ad-hoc inspections of DCC sites and premises trees, following safety reports from members of the public or DCC staff. All tree inspections will require identifying what, if any, tree surgery work will need to be performed and on what timescales. Identified work will fall into the categories outlined within the framework agreement to allow commissioning of tree work. Lot 2: Tree surgery — this lot is to provide tree surgery services across the nine subdivided regions. It is further subdivided into the following types of surgery: (a) planned, non-emergency, surgery work of trees on highways and following either a scheduled or ad-hoc inspection; (b) planned, non-emergency, surgery works of non-highways trees, following either a scheduled or ad-hoc inspection; (c) emergency highways tree surgery; (d) emergency non-highways tree surgery; (e) highways and non highways, three operative gang, daily-charged work; (f) highways crown lift works. The above groups of work will be awarded to contractors based on their work rates for each of the above on a district by district basis. Lot 3: Activities within this lot will involve the bulk felling of highways trees (mainly Ash Trees infected with Ash Dieback). It is intended that this lot will largely be used for Highways work however the position is preserved for it also to be used for large scale tree removal at DCC premises. Award of contracts under lot 3 will be subject to a mini competition, which may be based on price and quality criteria.