Purpose

On 23/01/23 a Cabinet Report approved the phasing of Cooper Bridge in order to ‘allow key transport infrastructure works to progress to bring much-needed improvements more widely across the district.’

A further cabinet report on 10 September 2024 allowed for:

(1) Delegate to Service Director Skills and Regeneration in consultation with the Service Director Legal, Governance and Commissioning to enter into any procurement, funding or contract documentation to enable individual projects and schemes to proceed as set out in this report and in accordance with the Contract Procedure Rules.

(2) Delegate to Service Director Skills and Regeneration in consultation with the relevant Portfolio holder(s) and Service Director Finance (S151) to enable changes to individual projects and funding allocations in accordance with Financial Procedure Rules to facilitate efficient delivery.

In order to support this there is a requirement to go out to tender as a 2-stage design and build procurement of a contractor under NEC 4 Option C and the subsequent appointment of a contractor following the competitive tender.

Approval for Cooper Bridge to:

·         Go out for tender

·         Appointment of a contractor through a competitive tender process.

It is a requirement to appoint a contractor and the options considered were:

·         2 stage design and build procurement of a contractor (use of ECI, framework call off)

·         ECI consultant and contractor procurements (2 procurement process) – (framework call off)

·         Fully designed procurement – (1 stage Framework Call-Off)

Major Project Board on 9th September confirmed 2 stage design and build procurement of a contractor is the preferred way forward. The rationale being the Council can benefit through engagement of a market leading contractor at an early stage for a procurement of such size and complexity.

Decision

Approval for Cooper Bridge to:

·         Go out for tender

·         Appointment of a contractor through a competitive tender process.

This is in accordance with the Cabinet Approval on 10th September 2024 which states ‘Delegate to Service Director Skills and Regeneration in consultation with the Service Director Legal, Governance and Commissioning to enter into any procurement, funding or contract documentation to enable individual projects and schemes to proceed as set out in this report’.

The exact procurement route was approved within Major Project Board on 9th September which confirmed 2 stage design and build procurement of a contractor