Highways Services Contract

Suffolk County Council wishes to appoint an industry-leading service provider to become its partner in the delivery of the Council’s highways maintenance and professional services (Contract). The Council is looking to forge a long-term collaborative relationship with a service provider that delivers a Contract that actively supports the Council’s corporate objectives and provides added value to the County. At present, the majority of the Council's highways maintenance activities (including street lighting (SLS), intelligent transport systems (ITS) and professional services) are delivered through its existing highways contract which is due to expire in September 2023.

The Council intends to put in place a new, flexible Contract to maximise the potential for success for both itself and the appointed service provider.

The Council wishes to put in place a new, exciting and flexible arrangement to facilitate its highways activities. The current intention is to ensure that the new Contract encourages and facilitates the following:• Collaboration and partnership – the Council is keen to establish a partnership with the appointed service provider which embodies trust in service delivery and pricing, actively supports its objectives, promotes collaboration and embraces the needs of the Council as well as the people of the County of Suffolk.• Social considerations – in putting in place this important Contract, the Council will consider how it can bring Social Value benefits to its communities by ensuring these are embedded in the service specification, form part of its procurement decisions and are delivered through this Contract. • Climate Emergency – potential service providers 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 highway services activities to mitigate environmental impacts whilst actively working in accordance with the Council’s Climate Change Commercial Ask. • Environmental considerations – the Council also wishes to seek out opportunities within the highway maintenance services where it can make positive contributions to biodiversity and protecting the environment across Suffolk. • Communication and Engagement - communication for the highways service plays a key role in keeping customers and stakeholders informed about the different services being delivered (location and time) and informs the Council of defects, complaints and compliments.• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – the Council wants a service provider that is committed to ensuring fair and accessible opportunities for everyone from diverse backgrounds and promoting an inclusive culture and environment within the workplace. The Contract will provide for the delivery of both core highways maintenance services and professional services. Whilst the likely value of the professional services under the Contract is considerably lower than the value of the core maintenance services, the Council considers the quality and manner in which those professional services are delivered to be of equal importance to the overall success of the Contract and is committed to ensuring that the provider of those professional services engages directly with the Council and has an opportunity to influence the development of the Contract more generally particularly in the context of innovation, sustainability and social value. The service provider will provide professional services for small to medium size improvement and capital maintenance schemes as well as large and/or specialist type activities for specific tasks or programmes. Separate contracts will be put in place for the provision of SLS and ITS services in the first instance however, the Council reserves its right to bring those services into this Contract at a later date. The Council is aware that the approach it has decided to take in respect of the Contract may be different to many of the approaches currently in, or coming to, the market. The Council strongly believes that its approach will not only promote a closer working relationship with the service provider but will provide the best value for money for the Council, delivered through a platform which supports and anticipates change and improvement, and which has been established to promote and deliver on the key objectives. The Council will ensure a fair and transparent procurement process whilst complying with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and intends to invite the top four scoring Candidates to participate in and submit an initial tender. The top three scoring Bidders will then be invited to participate in and submit detailed and final tenders. Further information about the procurement process is set out in the Project Information Memorandum (PIM).