Purpose

 
The
Cabinet meeting of the 9th
May 2024 approved the County Council's 2024/25 Transport Programme,
funded by the Department for Transport's Integrated Transport Grant
totalling £6.592m, which included a £0.4m allocation
for Accrington Railway Station.
 
A
draft Development Services Agreement has been produced by Network
Rail in respect of continuing design development of the Accrington
Railway Station Access for All scheme. The scheme will ultimately
create better connections between platforms and the main station
building and will increase accessibility to a wider range of
destinations for a wider range of rail passengers.
 
The
preferred method of delivery for this stage of the project is for
Network Rail to undertake design development and associated project
management activities via a direct award, given the interaction and
close proximity of the project to the operational
railway.
 
This
follows the approach taken by the county council on the Burnley
Manchester Road and Cottam Parkway railway station projects where
direct contract awards were made to Network Rail for design
development activities.
 
It
is proposed that this stage of the project be delivered by Network
Rail under a standard Direct Services Agreement and under Network
Rail's Project Acceleration in a Controlled Environment (PACE)
process. It was originally envisaged that Network Rail undertake
design activities to the end of ES4 (single option development
stage) but they have been unable to resource this within financial
year 2024/25.
 
Network Rail's internal staff and framework contractors will be
used to deliver the project's design package. Network Rail's
frameworks have been competitively tendered to comply with
procurement legislation and assessed on value for money with
mandatory ‘gateway’ standards pertaining to safety and
engineering.
 
The
completion of this stage of design activities totalling
c.£50k (PACE Phase 1, Engineering Stage 3 Option Selection)
will be used to inform bids for future funding to enable scheme
delivery and will: 

- 
Conclude the Option Selection phase of
design

- 
Complete site surveys including mining risk
assessment, signal sighting, structural, drainage and topographical
surveys 

- 
Produce an ES3 stage validation procurement strategy
and requirements document 

- 
Provide an indicative estimated cost and programme
for the next ES4 – 5 single option and detailed design
stages
 
Funding for the project has been set up within the County
Council's financial system within PPMS ID 15348.
 

Content

 
The Director of Highways and
Transport, in consultation with the Head of Procurement, took the
decision to;
 
(i) 
Approve the progression of the Accrington Railway Station Access
for All project design package with Network Rail to a value of
circa £50,000.
(ii) 
Approve a waiver of the county council's procurement rules as set
out at paragraph 12 of the Procurement Rules, to allow a direct
award of a contract (via a Development Services Agreement) to be
made to Network Rail to enable Network Rail to deliver the next
stage of design development.