Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Environment and Economy which explained the recent market engagement exercise, including a local Industry Day event which had been held to present details of the proposed Mersey Gateway procurement process to firms that were interested in being part of consortia and who could qualify as bidding candidates for the project. 

The Board was advised that the work required to prepare for procurement had commenced in November last year, on receiving funding approval from the Spending Review.  Progress had been made towards defining the procurement process and the contract framework to be applied. It was reported that before confirming the procurement and contract strategy it was prudent to consult potential suppliers on certain key aspects of the emerging proposals.

The Board was further advised that given that it was expected that Government would clear the project for procurement in time for the formal expression of interest invitation to be published in early summer the market engagement had been launched through a Prior Information Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (The PIN). The PIN had been published during the week of 31^st January and responses were invited on the following topics:-

·               the process proposed to be adopted for the procurement;

·               the proposed payment mechanism ;

·               the approach to contaminated land;

·               the approach to tolling infrastructure;

·               the approach to operational governance arrangements;

·               the scope of advance works; and

·               the potential for possible alternative contractual and risk sharing

         arrangements in relation to the commercial support role for

         tolling.

         It was reported that in order to support the market engagement a project information memorandum had been produced which was attached to the report at Annex 1. In addition to the Industry Day event, interested parties were also given the opportunity to meet with the project team on an individual or group basis. To date eight meeting had taken place. 

The Board was also advised that responses to the market consultation were required by close on 4^th March 2011.  A report on the responses to the market consultation would be presented to a future meeting of the Board. 

The event, it was reported had focused on the organisations that were competent in forming bidding groups embracing the challenging scope of our requirements to deliver the main Design Build Finance and Operate contract for Mersey Gateway. In addition the project team intended to launch a seminar for the local suppliers (over 200), that were registered on the project local supplier list. Dates and arrangements for the local supplier seminar were under consideration.

It was reported that the high number of organisations present at the Industry day underlined the competitive interest in tendering for the Mersey Gateway DBFO contract.  The market engagement at this stage, alerted potential interested parties to the procurement programme and provided the project team with an opportunity to of five or six bidding groups that embraced all the competences that the Council required of a competent bidder and consequently prepared for a successful pre qualification process.

RESOLVED: That the encouraging high level of market interest evident in the market engagement exercise be noted.