Purpose

The Council’s Tree
Maintenance Services (TMS) term contract has ended in relation to
urban tree management.
 
Our approved contractor
provided services up to the end of the contract (31/03/23) but has
struggled with the provision of sufficient capacity to carry out
pruning works post-Covid. This is a national issue, with skilled
people leaving tree management for other industries /
professions.
 
Extending the contract period
with our approved contractor was not feasible due to these capacity
issues and so short-term rolling agreements were established with
local contractors.
  
It was not possible to
instigate the Council’s procurement process to award a new
TMS contract starting in April 2023 due to ongoing negotiations
with HCC about the management of their highway trees by DBC. The
decision whether to continue to provide tree management within
Dacorum for HCC would significantly affect the award of the TMS
contract in terms of contract value, scope and technical
specification. It was therefore decided to delay the TMS
procurement process until HCC negotiations had been finalised. This
is expected to be within 3 months when the specification can be
finalised and the temporary arrangements.
 
Now that these discussions are
in their final phase, documentation is now being prepared by the
Trees & Woodlands and Procurement teams for the Council’s
next TMS contract.    
 
Our ability to issue works to a
contractor outside of a formalised contract is financially limited.
Prior PFH approval has enabled the Trees & Woodlands team to
issue an increased volume of safety works to interim contractors,
but available capacity within the £75k financial limit is now
quite low.
 
PFH approval is now required to
extend the use of additional contractor capacity until the start of
a new TMS contract. 
 
Two existing approved suppliers
are providing tree work services to the Council but it is requested
that the financial limitations on their use is relaxed. The two
companies are;
 
Foremost Tree Surgeons Limited,
and
Roderick Wilson Tree Surgery
Limited
 

Decision

The Council’s Tree
Maintenance Services (TMS) term contract has ended in relation to
urban tree management.
 
Our approved contractor
provided services up to the end of the contract (31/03/23) but has
struggled with the provision of sufficient capacity to carry out
pruning works post-Covid. This is a national issue, with skilled
people leaving tree management for other industries /
professions.
 
Extending the contract period
with our approved contractor was not feasible due to these capacity
issues and so short-term rolling agreements were established with
local contractors.
  
It was not possible to
instigate the Council’s procurement process to award a new
TMS contract starting in April 2023 due to ongoing negotiations
with HCC about the management of their highway trees by DBC. The
decision whether to continue to provide tree management within
Dacorum for HCC would significantly affect the award of the TMS
contract in terms of contract value, scope and technical
specification. It was therefore decided to delay the TMS
procurement process until HCC negotiations had been finalised. This
is expected to be within 3 months when the specification can be
finalised and the temporary arrangements.
 
Now that these discussions are
in their final phase, documentation is now being prepared by the
Trees & Woodlands and Procurement teams for the Council’s
next TMS contract.    
 
Our ability to issue works to a
contractor outside of a formalised contract is financially limited.
Prior PFH approval has enabled the Trees & Woodlands team to
issue an increased volume of safety works to interim contractors,
but available capacity within the £75k financial limit is now
quite low.
 
PFH approval is now required to
extend the use of additional contractor capacity until the start of
a new TMS contract. 
 
Two existing approved suppliers
are providing tree work services to the Council but it is requested
that the financial limitations on their use is relaxed. The two
companies are;
 
Foremost Tree Surgeons Limited,
and
Roderick Wilson Tree Surgery
Limited