Street Lighting Service

Description

Suffolk County Council shall be commencing a procurement in the autumn of 2022 to appoint a service provider to deliver the Council’s street lighting service from October 2023. This notice is intended to announce the commencement of a pre-market engagement exercise relating to the Council’s appointment of a service provider. This contract will deliver all works associated with maintenance of all council owned illuminated assets. In addition, the new contract will include street lighting capital works and third-party works including: column replacements, lantern replacements, new complete unit installations, unit removals, illuminated sign and bollard works, associated trenching, ducting backfill and reinstatement, private and DNO cabling connections. At present, the street lighting service is delivered through the existing Highways Services contract for the maintenance requirements with capital and third party works through a separate contract, both contracts expire in September 2023 Lot 1: The details of the activities which will take place for the PME are set out in the PME document available upon request by sending an email to: highwaysservicesprocurement@suffolkhighways.org and will consist of a combination of:(i) A PME Questionnaire (contained within the PME document). The Council is keen to receive responses in order to help it structure any future procurement process in a way that is going to be suitable for, and attractive to, the market. (ii) Depending on the nature and level of interest, the Council may also hold one-to-one discussions with some or all of the companies that complete and return the PME Questionnaire (such meetings scheduled to take place between 12.09.2022 and 16.09.2022) to secure a more detailed understanding of the services to be provided. We recognise the challenges involved in delivering street lighting services and appreciate that there are both many approaches to this as well as a significant number of lessons learned and improvements which we are keen to take into account in developing our own strategy whilst also aiming to maximise the success of our Contract. In summary, our current intention is to put in place the right focus on the following:- Collaboration and partnership – we are keen to establish a partnership with the appointed service provider which embodies trust in service delivery, pricing, actively supports our objectives, promotes collaboration and embraces the needs of our customers. - Social considerations – in putting in place this important Contract, we will consider how we can bring Social Value benefits to our communities by ensuring these are embedded in the service specification, form part of our procurement decisions and are delivered through our Contract. - Climate Emergency – the potential service provider will need to demonstrate how they will help the Council with its aim to be Carbon Net Zero by 2030. This will include reviewing and monitoring street lighting service activities to mitigate their environmental impact whilst actively working in accordance with the Council’s Climate Change Commercial Ask. - Environmental considerations – we also wish to seek out opportunities within the street lighting service where we can make positive contributions to biodiversity across Suffolk. • Customer Communication and Engagement - communication for the service plays a key role in keeping our customers and stakeholders informed about the different services/works being delivered (location and time) and informs us of defects, complaints and compliments. • A sensible and fair procurement process – in conducting this procurement process, we will ensure best practice procurement processes whilst adhering to the requirements of the Public Contract Regulations. • Commercialism and Enterprise – we strive for continuous improvement to ensure our objective of efficient and effective public service remains at the forefront of the services we provide. The pre-market engagement stages of this process, as set out in this document, will provide a platform for potential service providers to comment and feed into the procurement process. This early engagement is aimed at producing a procurement programme that best supports service providers to create and refine their final solutions that best deliver the Council’s requirements. Further information on the pre-market engagement, including the Project Launch Session, can be found in the PME document. Additional information: The initial contract length is anticipated to be 5 years from the 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2028 with the option to extend for up to a further 5 years. The anticipated value of £45,000,000 is based upon the total of 10 years with approximate value of £3.5m per annum (£1.5M maintenance per annum and £2.0M Capital per annum) and £1.0m per annum third party capital works.