Agenda item

[Report of the Assistant Director for Strategy and Communications. To be introduced by the Leader of the Council.]

Report seeking approval of the street furniture contract. Following a tender exercise the Council would like to award the contract to the winning contractor, a sign on fee and annual return of revenue for the term of the contract has been agreed. This is for the 'on street advertising'.

The Leader introduced the report, outlining that the Council had a duty to communicate and engage with all Haringey residents. Part of that duty involved ensuring that residents are aware of services that are available, activity and events that were taking place in the borough and any key messages the Council and partners needed to convey.

One channel used for this communication activity was on-street sites such as poster sites. The existing contract, which had run for over 20 years and included 29 static single and double-sided poster sites, which did not offer best value for the Council or residents. It currently incurred cost for the Council to utilise these sites and was an outdated method of communication. Therefore, it had been decided to review the current contract and set out an invitation to tender (ITT) and procurement process to deliver not only a more current method of communication but also engage in a contract that could deliver a commercial return. The report set out the result of the procurement process.

In response to questions from Councillor Dennison, the following was noted.

• In relation to the potential £2.5m income over 3 years, this was a guaranteed potential income based on the sites that have been identified. This was at a minimum level, depending on success rate.

• Noted that the conditions of the new contract allowed the Council to review the contract implementation, once sites set out in report were implemented, and then take a view, based on assessment of delivery against the contract, on whether to increase the threshold for income.

• In relation to the collection of information from the beacons and forward facing cameras, the Assistant director for Strategy and Communications would provide a written response.

• The digital screens would be placed on existing Poster sites so there was no conservation assessment required. The successful bidder would be working with Highways Team to ensure installations were well implemented.

Further to considering the exempt information:

RESOLVED

To approve the request for the Council to enter into a contract with Supplier A for the Provision of Digital Street Advertising in accordance with CSO 9.01.1 (Tender Process) as permitted under CSO 9.07.1(d) (Award Process) for a period of 10 years from I October 2018 – September 2028 for a contract income value of £2.05 million. There is an option to extend for a further 5 years for a total contract income value of £3 million.

Reasons for decision

The current contract will soon expire and there is a requirement for the Council to

use all possible channels to communicate with residents.

The Council is increasingly seeking opportunities to generate income and therefore contribute towards achieving the savings targets set in the medium term financial strategy.

The appointment of the Supplier (Supplier A) will allow the Council to achieve the

aims set in 4.1 and 4.2.

Through the new contractual arrangement, the Council will receive an expected income of £3 million over a 15-year period. This is in contrast to the current contract, which costs the Council £13,600 per annum in business rates and £495 for each campaign or use of the poster sites.

The current contract allows for 29 double-sided paper panels (58 screens in total). These panels will initially be replaced with 15 double-sided digital screens (30 screens in total). The advantage of digital screens over paper screens is that they can significantly increase the volume of commercial advertising. Smaller, local retailers will be able to buy digital screen space time for their own advertising (currently this is not the case) and corporate messages can be displayed for up to 15% of the assets’ inventory.

As a result of 4.5, the Council will be meeting its objective of decluttering its pavements of unnecessary street furniture. The reduced number of screens will actually generate a sizeable income stream for the Council. This is a good example of the Council achieving its “more for less” initiative.

In order to ensure compliance with EU procurement legislation and to ensure value for money, Strategic Procurement led an Open Tender exercise in accordance with CSO 9.01.1. The tender was advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and Contract Finder. The Competition was based on:

Price 50%

Quality 50%

The above evaluation weighting was applied to ensure the Council’s requirement for high quality, sensitive, accurate and critical data was met by the winning supplier.

Responses

Two bids were received following the Open Tender Process.

Suppliers

The following is the summary of the outcome of the tender evaluation and clarification process for all Suppliers that tendered.

Alternative options considered

Do nothing

This was not an option as the income (£3 million) generated by this contract would

contribute to the Council’s aim of increasing income where possible and appropriate.

Use of Frameworks as an alternative to an Open Tender process

This was not considered as an option as there was no existence of any Framework

Agreements that accommodated this provision.