Purpose

Whilst operational performance within the
Traffic Signals Contract has been good, the Council have not seen
the expected benefits outlined within the original bid come to
fruition within this contract and therefore the Executive, in
November 2023, approved the reprocurement of the contract with the
following delegated powers:

That authority be delegated to the Executive Director –
Place, in consultation with the Executive Councillor for Highways,
Transport and IT, to take all decisions necessary to progress the
procurement of the replacement arrangements referred to in
paragraph 5 above, to include choice of procurement procedure,
scope of the services and the terms of all necessary legal
documentation and to approve the final form and the entering into
of all contracts and other legal documentation necessary to give
effect to the replacement contract.

After the conclusion of an Open procurement in which we received
three compliant bids, Swarco UK & Ireland came out as the
preferred bidder, achieving a score of 88.11% overall (52.30% of
the 60% available for Quality and 35.81% of the 40% available for
Price).

Decision

Decision to award a six year (plus six year
extension option) traffic signals maintenance contract to Swarco UK
& Ireland Ltd.

The total cost of the full twelve year agreement is
£26,779,345.50 plus VAT. With an annual cost of
£2,231,612.13.

The contract will run from 1st April 2026 until 31st March 2032
unless extended.

Alternative options considered

Alternative Procurement Options:

Extension This was rejected by the Executive with approval given to
proceed with reprocurement

Frameworks were considered but none were identified that matched
the full specification or provided the opportunity to assess the
whole market for value for money. There was also an absence of key
suppliers as identified in PME. As such this option was
rejected.

A Competitive Flexible Procedure was considered and rejected as the
market size was expected to be too small to provide any benefit
from adopting a more intensive multi stage approach