Lakeside North Harbour - Grounds Maintenance - Soft Market Testing

Portsmouth City Council (the 'council') currently have a contract in place for the delivery of grounds maintenance services at Lakeside North Harbour, Portsmouth, PO6 3EN which is due to end on the 31st March 2025. We are looking to gather information from the market to advise an upcoming tender for the re-procurement of this service. The value of this opportunity is in the region of £225,000 per annum currently and it is envisaged that the contract will be for 3 years with the option to extend for a further 4 years at increments to be decided. Please see the proposed procurement timetable below. PIN/RFI issue - Wednesday 14th August 2024 RFI deadline - Friday 6th September 2024 FTS Notice issued Monday 23rd September 2024 SSQ and procurement documents published on Intend Monday 23rd September 2024 Deadline for requests for clarification - Wednesday 9th October 2024 SSQ submission deadline - Friday 24th October 2024 ITT and final procurement documents published on Intend - Monday 11th November 2024 Tender return deadline - Friday 20th December 2024 Notification of preferred bidder - Friday 24th January 2025 Standstill starts Monday 27th January 2025 Standstill finishes Friday 7th February 2025 Contract award - Monday 10th February 2025 Contract commencement - Tuesday 1st April 2025 The council would like to 'test the market' to obtain a better understanding of the level of interest from potential suppliers in delivering this service, gain feedback in relation to the councils requirements, proposed commercial/contractual model, procurement approach and timescales. Suppliers should note that there is no obligation to take part in this exercise and that if they do not take part, it will not preclude them from any subsequent related procurement process. Engaging suppliers will not receive preferential treatment in any subsequent quotation or tender process, and this is in no way an indication of the selection of any organisation or a guarantee of future work. Interested suppliers are invited to access and submit a response questionnaire via the InTend system by Friday 6th September 2024. Any questions that you may have must also be submitted using its correspondence function on InTend. Please follow the below link to access the system in order to obtain copies of the questionnaire, soft market testing brief and draft documentation (specification, site information, etc.). https://in-tendhost.co.uk/portsmouthcc/aspx/home