To inform Cabinet of progress with the Streetscene major procurements that are currently underway and seek approval for officers to proceed to award contracts to put in place new service delivery arrangements for 1 September 2013 when current contracts come to an end.

The Cabinet Member, Major Contracts presented the report of the Commissioning Programme Delivery Manager, Streetscene – Major Procurements and made the following comments:

·         The procurement process started July 2012 to replace the current service delivery arrangements carried out under Streetscene.

·         The decision today by Cabinet to name the preferred bidder for the public realm contract is a key milestone in the procurement process.

·         The views of stakeholders and Members had been sought in setting out the procurement objectives.

·         The approach had been overseen by the General Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the objectives of the procurement reflected the comments of the Committee.

·         The procurement had been split into four separate elements covering public realm, building maintenance, building cleaning and ancillary services.  Only the first three were large enough for major procurements.

·         Confident that savings would be made, with the potential for further efficiency savings during the life of the contracts.

·         The report seeks delegated authority to complete the procurement process for building maintenance and building cleaning services.

·         Cabinet is today considering public realm services which represents annual expenditure of approximately £20m and is a major ten year contract with the potential for an extension for a further ten years.  Cabinet therefore, needed to be sure of the robustness of the procurement process and that their objectives could be achieved.

·         The report sets out the approach taken and how Cabinet’s objectives were reflected in the proposals.

·         The Cabinet Member confirmed the scores of the bidders as set out at Appendix A to the report.

The Assistant Director, Place Based Commissioning and his team made the following comments in response to questions to the meeting:

·         Thanks were expressed to all bidders involved in the process.

·         In referring to the scope of the procurement, the objectives were set based on the feedback from Members.

·         The procurement timetable is set out at figure 3 to the report and paragraphs 10.16 to 10.21 set out the other elements to the contract.

·         This is an important contract for the Council and has drawn on outside expertise to assist Council officers.

·         A risk management approach has been taken to the project to provide assurance and value for money for the life of the contract.

·         The contract award for Public Realm is expected to be at the beginning of July 2013.

·         Cabinet sought and received the assurance of the Monitoring and the Section 151 Officers that they were content with the process, as the contract allows for the devolvement of services to local budgets.

·         It was noted that improvement in customer services was one of the objectives.  Each of the bidders provided excellent responses on this objective stating how the use of technology would improve response times.

·         In response to a question on expenditure on the contract in supporting the local economy and jobs.  It was confirmed that there had been a strong response from all of the bidders in supporting the local supply chain, bringing business into Herefordshire and giving local contractors the opportunity to bid for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4