Issue - meetings

Joint report of Corporate Director for Resident Services and Acting Director for Neighbourhood Services

Chris Keane, Head of Highway Services, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the purpose of the report was to seek approval for the provision of future procurement arrangements to support Nottingham City delivery of:

(i)  statutory highway maintenance works;

(ii)  highway improvement and public realm programmes;

(iii)  specialist support services for highways works;

b)  there are currently established framework arrangements in place to support highways delivery but, considering the forecast of planned work activity in future years, it is essential that additional frameworks are established commencing in 2023/24;

c)  in preparation for this, and to ensure continuity in procurement compliance for delivery in future years, additional new contracts and framework arrangements (without commitment to spend) will be required to be put in place;

d)  in addition, there are requirements for approval to access third party frameworks for essential services for Highways;

e)  approval was sought to put procurement arrangements in place for the following essential activities:

(i)  works - multi-disciplined works, including improvement schemes, junction improvement schemes, safety schemes and city centre improvements;

(ii)  services – highway design and project support, specialist highway, asset management, project support and winter service weather forecasting;

f)  it was proposed that contracts were awarded through conducting processes in accordance with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and requirements under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and, where permitted, (provided they demonstrate Best Value), to access existing national frameworks;

g)  contracts are anticipated to utilise the National Engineering Council (NEC 4) Suite of Construction Contracts or other industry recognised and accepted terms;

h)  a breakdown of the contract requirements is detailed in appendix 1, including the proposed duration of contracts;

i)  in the operation of any awarded framework agreements, it will be necessary to award call-off contracts for individual projects;

j)  to ensure oversight to the operation of any framework and subsequent call-off arrangements, it is proposed that responsibility be delegated to the Contracts and Compliance Manager for Highways.

Resolved

(1)  to approve the procurement and subsequent award of contracts / Framework Agreements as detailed in appendix 1 to the report;

(2)  that authority be delegated to the Contracts and Compliance Manager for Highways to act as ‘Framework Manager’ for awarded call-off from the Framework Agreements as listed in appendix 1 to the report.

Reasons for recommendations

Recommendation 1 - Procuring Highway Contacts & Frameworks will allow Highway Services to continue to compliantly deliver works and services to fulfil statutory obligations to maintain the highway and support all Transport Services in compliant delivery options.

The identified benefits of putting these arrangements in place are:

·  continuity in the provision of compliant delivery arrangements for highways activities in response to increased grant allocation for highways and transport projects;

·  enabling the delivery of external grant funded schemes in line with the timescales of the award;

·  a value-for-money delivery model with no fixed financial commitment to use the framework;

·  opportunities for local Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) companies to tender for the work;

·  the potential for a local workforce either  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44