VEAT Notice - Intention to award a public construction services contract for completing the design of a Community Treatment & Care Centre

Intention to award a Public Construction Services contract under Regulation 32(2) (b) (ii) and (iii) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 for the completion of an existing building design and competitive tendering of the subsequent construction works contract. The public construction services contract includes architectural, engineering and quantity surveying services to enable the Trust to complete the existing design with planning approval on a site purchased by the Trust. The Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication is being followed and is justified under Regulation 32 (2) (b) (ii) and (iii)

The Trust wishes to develop a Community Treatment and Care Centre (CTCC) co-locating existing Trust primary care services from a variety of unsuitable buildings in the greater Newry area to ensure that the primary care health needs of the population are met now and for future years to come.

The fundamental consideration is obtaining a suitable site in Newry that will accommodate a large primary care hub in a suitable for location. The Trust is purchasing a site at Abbey Way, Newry, which following a previous failed 3rd Party Delivery procurement, has planning approval for a 12,000m2 primary care hub the design of which is substantially complete.

Following purchase of the site the Trust require the existing design developed in close corporation with the Trust and to its requirements to be completed and the subsequent construction works contract to be competitively tendered. The original design team having partially worked at risk have possession of the existing detailed design information and intellectual property rights over it. The existing design was developed over four years in close cooperation with the Trust and CPD Health Projects who invested significant staff resources in ensuring it met the Trust requirements and to abandon the design would entail loss of the public money invested to date and considerable delay as the design and planning approval were recreated.

The Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication is being followed and is justified under Regulation 32 (2) (b) (ii) and (iii) for the award of a public construction services contracts for completion of the existing CTCC design for Abbey Way, Newry. The construction services can only be supplied by a particular economic operator due to their exclusive rights as the author of the existing design and the technical impracticality of an alternative design team being able to complete the existing design. A timely delivery of the development can be met because the existing design is substantially complete, has planning permission in place and will be delivered at significantly quicker, at lower cost to the public purse. There are no reasonable alternative or substitute development sites within the area that will meet the delivery timescales.