Procurement partners refresh framework

Wrexham Council is leading a group of local authorities clubbing together to appoint a panel of consultants for a range of work over the next four years with a total budget that could reach £40m.

The North Wales Procurement Partnership, representing Gwynedd, Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham Councils, let a framework agreement in August 2009 for construction professional services. This agreement expired in August 2013. The North Wales Procurement Partnership, was asked by an all-Wales group of authorities and the National Procurement Service to replace this agreement with a wider framework also covering Mid and South Wales.

The agreement will cover architecture, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, CDM Co-ordination, structural engineering, project management, ecology, landscape architecture, and BREEAM assessment.

There are 93 separate lots, divided by geography, value of works and specialist skill.

Wrexham is the lead authority running the procurement and is using eTenderwales to carry out the procurement process.

The framework agreement will be in place for an initial two years with two possible extensions of 12 months each.

Wrexham Council said in its invitation to tender that it expects a maximum of five companies to be awarded places on each of the lots.

The framework is due to go live with the first contractors named in May 2014.