Provision of Parking Enforcement for 8 Local Authorities in Northern Ireland - Pre-Market Engagement Exercise

Description

Belfast City Council, on behalf of a Consortium of eight local authorities in Northern Ireland, is seeking expressions of interest and intends to carry out a market testing exercise in support of a potential new off street parking enforcement contract that will cover 332 city/town/village centre council-owned sites located throughout eight Boroughs and Districts from 1 November 2023. The Council Boroughs and Districts include: - Ards & North Down Borough - Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough - Belfast City - Derry City & Strabane District - Fermanagh & Omagh District - Lisburn & Castlereagh City - Mid Ulster District - Newry, Mourne & Down District The 332 sites consist of 107 charged sites (all of these being surface sites utilising Pay & Display), along with 225 free sites that are enforced upon request. The current enforcement provision (including back office support) is carried out by the Department for Infrastructure. The potential new enforcement contract is envisioned to cover all aspects of off-street parking enforcement from the provision of Civil Enforcement Officers through to cash collection, including provision for cashless parking payments (payment for parking or permits by phone, internet or smart phone application), as well as first line notice processing, back-office provision and all software and hardware provision. Lot 1: The Council intends to shortly undertake a procurement exercise in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended). As preparation for this procurement, the Council intends to hold a supplier engagement and market testing exercise with dates and timeslots available on 22nd November 2022 and 23rd November 2022 which will be undertaken via online meeting i.e. MS Teams or Zoom. Each session will provide interested suppliers with an overview of the opportunity, indicative timetable and the Council’s expectations for the services that will be procured under the forthcoming procurement exercise. In-person meetings during that week may be facilitated upon request but only in exceptional circumstances for those suppliers who are unable to accommodate an online meeting. If required, they will take place at the Council headquarters (See section 1 of this notice). Suppliers will be given a strict 45 minute slot in which 15 minutes will be the Council’s presentation, 15 minutes for suppliers to present to the Council and 15 minutes for discussion. Suppliers will be invited to present on: (a) company background; (b) current offering; (c) innovation, features and benefits; and (d) relevance to this potential tender opportunity. The Council will publish all Council clarification responses and additional information made available by the Council during the market engagement exercise on the portal, along with a copy of the Council’s presentation slides (for the benefit of all attendees after the sessions and also for those unable to attend). Any questions that the Council is unable to answer at the time of the sessions yet is subsequently able to answer, will be recorded in written form and made available on the portal as above. The purpose of this notice, supporting pre-market engagement documentation and the market testing exercise is to establish the level of interest in the market for delivery of the Council’s requirements and provide the Council with the opportunity to engage with interested suppliers to help inform the scope of service to be delivered/tendered accordingly. Should you wish to attend, please email cps@belfastcity.gov.uk titling your email “Pre-market engagement - Provision of Parking Enforcement for 8 Local Authorities in Northern Ireland” no later than 12 Noon on Friday 18th November 2022. At present, timeslots are available on each day (22nd and 23rd) starting 9.30am every hour up to lunchtime and will be allocated on a first come basis. We may make afternoon timeslots available on each day if number of requests dictate but the preference will be to fill the morning slots where possible. Please in your email include only: attendee(s) names and titles; company name; email, telephone number and preferred timeslot(s). e.g. 9.30am on 22nd November. Include a number of timeslot options in case your preferred option is already taken. It is important to note that: (a) this notice and the market testing exercise do/will not constitute a call for competition, a pre-qualification questionnaire, part of any pre-qualification/selection process or a current tender opportunity. All interested suppliers will need to express a formal interest in any future tender opportunity in due course once a contract notice (as appropriate) is published; and (b) the Council cannot guarantee it will incorporate all or any feedback received into any subsequent procurement. The Council will not disclose any confidential information supplied by an interested supplier in response to this notice or during the market testing, other than: (a) to its advisors, members, servants and agents (under similar obligations of confidentiality) for the purposes of this market testing exercise and any subsequent procurement process; or (b) as required under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 or to satisfy any other legislative obligation.