Purpose

On 7 May 2025, the Council’s Executive
agreed to progress the Horley Community Centre Modernisation
Project. A delegated decision was given to the Head of Community
Partnerships in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for
Community Partnerships, the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Assets
and Governance and the Chief Finance Officer, to be authorised to
“agree the procurement strategy for the project, undertaking
the necessary consultancy, surveyor, and contractor appointments
(including main contractor, inspectoral bodies or warranty
providers) and to enter into contracts to allow the project to be
delivered”.

Decision

The following procurement approach to be taken
to Horley Community Centre Modernisation:
• The immediate procurement of the required appointment of
professional consultants including the Employers Agent, cost
management and contract administrator.
• The procurement for the required appointment of a
professional Design team in August 2025.
• The procurement of the Contractor in September-December
2025, via a two-stage design and build process, entering into a
Pre-Construction Services Agreement first, prior to entering into
the construction contract;
The use of a suitable Framework Agreement to appoint the Contractor
and the expectation for some of the Professional Design team to be
novated to the Contractor, on their appointment.

Alternative options considered

Option 1 - To proceed with a traditional
procurement approach, where the main contractor is appointed at a
late stage in the project when designs are complete. This is not
recommended option as this would not bring cost certainty until a
very late stage in the project. It would build risk into the later
stages of the timeline, particularly where changes were identified
by the contractor that had not been identified by the design team.
Therefore, this was not seen as an approach that was likely to be
successful by the market.

Option 2 - To proceed with a single stage design and build
contract. This is not recommended as this option would build risk
into the later stages of the timeline as the contractor would not
have had oversight of the design and buildability aspects of the
proposals and, was not seen as an approach that was likely to be
successful by the market.