Issue - meetings

Report of Corporate Director for Growth and City Development

James Howe, Public Transport Operations Team Leader, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the Council currently has a 25-year contract, let in 1999, for the supply and maintenance of street furniture with and without advertising, which is due to expire on 31 December 2024;

b)  street furniture in the terms of this contract is specifically bus shelters and Council information panels (CIPs), otherwise termed as Free-Standing Units (FSUs);

c)  the Council’s street furniture estate comprises of 213 advertising bus shelters, 619 non-advertising bus shelters and 27 free standing units, which are located in the city centre;

d)  the incumbent is contracted to supply and maintain the full estate and manage the analogue (paper) advertising aspect. The Council is not involved in the commercial aspect of selling advertising space on these advertising panels;

e)  as per the existing contract, the Council receives an advertising fee. This is off set against the cost to the Council of the on-going supply and maintenance of the bus shelters, resulting in the existing contract being cost neutral overall;

f)  Nottingham has a comprehensive, high quality public transport network that is supported by high quality infrastructure, including excellent passenger waiting facilities, such as bus shelters. These waiting facilities help citizens to complete their public transport journey in a safer and more comfortable manner, and consultation has identified this is important to them;

g)  none of the current advertising panels used within the estate are digital. The use of digital advertising panels has become more prevalent across the Out of Home Media industry in recent years, with technology advancing and becoming less costly;

h)  digitising an estate provides more opportunity for income generation as other local authorities have found in recent years when re-tendering for similar contracts. It provides for a more flexible and dynamic approach for advertisers and removes the laborious nature of physically posting new adverts and the associated costs that come with that (such as printing costs);

i)  a procurement process is necessary to tender for a new contract for the supply and maintenance of bus shelters and FSUs with and without an advertising concession;

j)  a new advertising concession will allow for the provision of digital advertising panels where appropriate, which will make this a more attractive opportunity for potential providers. This, in turn, should provide more income generation for the Council and thereby help alleviate budget pressures.

Resolved to

(1)  approve commencement of a tender process for a 15-year contract for the supply and maintenance of bus shelters with and without an advertising concession throughout Nottingham and of free-standing council information units with advertising panels within the city centre;

(2)  delegate authority to the Corporate Director for Growth and City Development, in consultation with the Corporate Director for Finance and Resources, of the preferred procurement strategy, financial performance model and finalised tender documents, and to sign and award a contract to the preferred supplier.

Reasons for recommendations

a)  The decision was made not to extend the contract with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54