Issue details

Nottingham City Council currently has a 25-year contract that was let in 1999, for the supply and maintenance of street furniture with and without advertising, which is due to expire on 31st December 2024.
Street furniture in the terms of this contract is specifically bus shelters and Council information panels (CIPs), otherwise termed as Free-Standing Units (FSUs); these will be referenced as FSUs in this report.
The Council’s street furniture estate comprises of the following:
•213 advertising bus shelters
•619 non-advertising bus shelters
•27 free standing units, which are located in the city centre
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.
As per the existing contract, the Council does receive an Advertising Fee. This is off set against the cost to the Council for the on-going supply and maintenance of the bus shelters, resulting in the existing contract being cost neutral overall.
Nottingham has a comprehensive, high quality public transport network that is supported by high quality infrastructure, which includes 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.
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. 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.
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. 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 helping to alleviate budget pressures.
The procurement approach and the preferred financial performance model for the bus shelter and FSUs contract are being discussed and reviewed to confirm the most advantageous position to provide best value for the Council, while improving and enhancing the public transport passenger experience and encouraging public transport use.