Purpose

To award contracts for supply and installation of 7 play areas following competitive procurement exercise.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the Corporate Director has decided to:

1)    Award 7 contracts to the highest scoring bidder(s), as detailed in exempt Appendix 2, for the supply and installation of play areas for a period of 12 months to completion (and post installation monitoring), at a total cost of £0.784m (excluding VAT).

Alternative options considered

“Do nothing” – this is not a feasible option as the play equipment is at the end or nearing the end of its life span and will not meet the required Health & Safety standards indefinitely. Several pieces of equipment have been removed from some of the play area sites due to their risk in causing injury to the public.

“In house provision” – the services cannot be provided in house as the design; development and installation of play equipment is a specialist work area.  Play Area repair and maintenance is included in the Liverpool Streetscene Service Limited Grounds Maintenance Contract which the Council could in theory utilise; however, this is limited to minor repairs by Play Inspectors with neither the access to resources nor ability to design, develop and install whole play areas on a par with commercial play providers.