Highway Services - Suffolk

Tender description

Suffolk County Council ('the Council') shall be commencing a procurement in early 2022 to appoint a service provider to deliver the Council’s highways maintenance services. This notice is intended to announce the commencement of a pre-market engagement ("PME") exercise relating to the Council’s appointment of a service provider as more fully described in sections II.2.4. and VI.3 below.This contract will deliver both core highways maintenance services but may include options for other ancillary supplies of goods and/or services. The Council hopes to establish a new way of delivering these highways maintenance services to maximise the potential for success for both itself and the appointed service provider. At present, the majority of the Council's highways maintenance activities are delivered through its existing highways maintenance contract which is due to expire in September 2023. Lot 1: The details of the activities which will take place for the PME are set out in the PME document available upon request by sending an email to: highwaysservicesprocurement@suffolkhighways.org and will consist of a combination of:(i) A PME Questionnaire (contained within the PME document). The Council is keen to receive responses in order to help it structure any future procurement process in a way that is going to be suitable for, and attractive to, the market. (ii) Project Launch Session for all interested parties scheduled to take place via video conference on 26.01.2022. This will be an opportunity for the Council to give interested parties further information on the anticipated procurement process and the scope of the contract. (iii) Depending on the nature and level of interest, the Council may also hold one-to-one discussions with some or all of the companies that complete and return the PME Questionnaire (such meetings scheduled to take place on 27.01.2022 and 28.01.2022) to secure a more detailed understanding of the services to be provided. We recognise the challenges involved in delivering highways services and appreciate that there are both many approaches to this as well as a significant number of lessons learned and improvements which we are keen to take into account in developing our own strategy whilst also aiming to maximise the success of our Contract. In summary, our current intention is to put in place the right focus on the following:- Collaboration and partnership – we are keen to establish a partnership with the appointed service provider, which embodies trust in service delivery, pricing, actively supports our objectives, promotes collaboration and embraces the needs of our customers. - Social considerations – in putting in place this important Contract, we will consider how we can bring Social Value benefits to our communities by ensuring these are embedded in the service specification, form part of our procurement decisions and are delivered through our Contract. - Climate Emergency – the potential service provider will need to demonstrate how they will help the Council with its aim to be Carbon Net Zero by 2030. This will include reviewing and monitoring highway service activities to mitigate their environmental impact whilst actively working in accordance with the Council’s Climate Change Commercial Ask. • Environmental considerations – we also wish to seek out opportunities within the highway service where we can make positive contributions to biodiversity across Suffolk. • Customer Communication and Engagement - communication for the highways service plays a key role in keeping our customers and stakeholders informed about the different services being delivered (location and time) and informs us of defects, complaints and compliments. • A sensible and fair procurement process – in conducting this procurement process, we will ensure best practice procurement processes whilst adhering to the requirements of the Public Contract Regulations. • Commercialism and Enterprise – we strive for continuous improvement to ensure our objective of efficient and effective public service remains at the forefront of the services we provide. The pre-market engagement stages of this process, as set out in this document, will provide a platform for potential service providers to comment and feed into the procurement process. This early engagement is aimed at producing a procurement programme that best supports service providers to create and refine their final solutions that best deliver the Council’s requirements.Further information on the pre-market engagement, including the Project Launch Session, can be found in the PME document. Additional information: The initial contract length is anticipated to be 10 years from the 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2033 with the option to extend for up to a further 10 years. The anticipated value of £1,000,000,000 is based upon the total of 20 years with approximate value of £50m per annum.