Purpose

This report provides
details and seeks authorisation to increase the value of contract
DN625242 entitled “Transport Consultancy Professional
Services Network Management Support” between the Council and
Amey OW Limited by 50% in value from £799,000 to
£1,198,500.
 
The report provides
the background to this existing contract and outlines the reasons
for the change in contract value.  The
existing transport consultancy services contract is predominately
used to provide additional support for the Council’s City
Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) Combined Authority
Transport Plan (CATP) programme that is grant funded.
 
The increase in
contract value will allow the appointed consultants to continue to
deliver several on-going highway engineering schemes that aligns
with the Council Plan 2023-2027, in particular: theme 5: working
together to protect our environment, and theme 6: working together
to create safe, resilient, and engaged communities.
 
 

Decision

The Director of
Neighbourhood Services has approved an increase in contract value
from £799,000 to £1,198,500 for the existing Transport
Consultancy Professional Services contract with Amey OW Limited at
a registered address of Chancery Exchange, 10 Furnival Street,
London, EC4A 1AB in accordance with the Council’s
Constitution, Contract Procedure Rules, and National Procurement
Regulations.
 

Reasons for the decision

The
proposals within this report will ensure that on-going highway
engineering schemes included within the CRSTS CATP programme for
2024/25 continue to be worked upon that will allow the effective
delivery of the capital grant funded schemes.  The contract scope has not varied, the 50%
increase is required because the contract has delivered more than
initially anticipated.
 
The
proposals within this report will allow purchase orders to be
raised for the appointed consultancy to be able to continue to work
on capital grant funded schemes.
 
The
delivery of the Council’s CRSTS CATP programme contributes to
the following strategic objectives of the Liverpool City Region
Road Safety Strategy:
 
· 
A reduction in the number and severity of road
traffic collisions working to a target of no avoidable collisions
by 2040.
 
· 
Creating the conditions for more people to make
safer journeys on foot or by bicycle and enabling more children to
walk and cycle to school; and
 
· 
Contributing to improved air quality and reducing
climate changing CO2 emissions.

 
Failure to agree to
this increase in contract value will result in stopping all
associated works with Amey Consultants and the need to undertake a
re-procurement exercise that will ultimately delay the delivery of
ongoing schemes that Amey are working on.  Furthermore, if it is necessary to re-tender a new
contract and should Amey not be successful then this will only
further exacerbate the process as any new successful bidder is
likely to go back to the beginning of the detailed design
stage.
 
A strict management
and monitoring regime will be in place to ensure that any further
orders of work against this contract will be not exceed the 50%
increase in contact value. 
 

Alternative options considered

Another option is for
the Council to undertake a re-procurement tendering exercise for a
new contract with a bigger contract value to allow the highway
engineering schemes to be designed and delivered.  Whilst this is not practical now due to the
impending work involved to deliver the highway engineering schemes
within the scheduled programme, it is considered a viable option to
procure a new contract for the medium to long term which is being
worked upon through procurement.
 
Within the
Council’s Highways and Infrastructure service, there is
currently no staffing resource with the appropriate level of
experience and skills set to undertake this work in-house should a
re-procurement tendering exercise be undertaken, and it is felt
that increasing the contract value to allow ongoing works to
continue is the best option.