This decision was delegated to officers under Part 4.4 of the Council’s Constitution: All executive functions except the ones in Part 4.5 and 4.6 are delegated to the officers in the senior management structure.  Cabinet, in November 2022, approved the delivery of the overall project and the overall scheme budget of £10.2m (including fees and contingencies).  Please see here.

To appoint Perfect Circle JV Limited (a joint venture between Aecom Limited, Gleeds Capital Limited and PEKG Limited - a trading vehicle of Pick Everard, a partnership)to provide multi-disciplinary consultancy services to support the delivery of the construction of the new Oxpens Bridge.  The value of the contract will be £149,531.38 (£179,437.66 to include VAT).  This is a fixed price, apart from £8.5k (£10,200 including VAT) discretionary spend.  The procurement has been undertaken via the SCAPE Consultancy framework.

The decision enables the Council to enter into a NEC Professional Services contract with Perfect Circle JV Limited to provide Employer’s Agent, Cost Consultancy, Clerk of Works and CDM Advisor services. PEKG Limited (through Pick Everard, a partnership which owns PEKG Limited) will be the joint venture partner providing each of the services.  It is essential to ensure that the contract for the services performed by the appointed contractor is properly administered and that the construction phase is planned, delivered and monitored in a safe and efficient manner.  We cannot deliver these services in-house.  The timely appointment of the consultant team is needed now to maintain the delivery of the bridge by the agreed target date of 31 March 2025.

A review of four frameworks was undertaken that included suppliers with a track record in the delivery of civils/ infrastructural projects.  A balanced assessment was made of the suitability of each framework lot on the following basis:

- the track record/ experience of suppliers on each lot

- submitted day rates

- complexity and time scales involved in process

The review concluded that the route providing the highest certainty in identifying a consultant’s team that could offer the best and most recent experience in the management of construction of a structure of a similar type/ value would be to engage Perfect Circle JV Limited (Pick Everard, as above) via Lot 2 (Infrastructure) of the SCAPE framework.

Decision taken by Carolyn Ploszynski, Head of Regeneration and Economy in consultation with Nigel Kennedy, Head of Financial Services; Emma Jackman, Head of Law and Governance; and Councillor Ed Turner, Deputy Leader (Statutory) – Finance and Asset Management.