Purpose

Cabinet is recommended to
approve the procurement of the Abroicultural services contract.
Current contract expires on the 30th of June
2024
 

Content

Cabinet:
 

(1) 
Approve the procurement of the Arboricultural Services Contract; and

 

(2) 
delegate authority to award the contract to the Strategic Director
of Neighbourhood and Environment in consultation with the Strategic
Director of Resources.
 
OPTIONS & ALTERNATIVES
CONSIDERED

Option 1 – Do Nothing

The council has a
statutory duty to maintain our trees to a safe and healthy standard
and not having a tree maintenance contract in place would be a
public health and safety risk to the Council.

The high clay content
of soil Waltham Forest makes it a borough that is susceptible to
subsidence insurance claims from trees in residential areas.
Cyclical monitoring and maintenance reduce the impact of trees in
the built environment.

Considering the above
the ‘Do Nothing’ approach is not an option.

The Option
2 –
Competitive from Framework

Advantage:

The framework comes with advantages to keeping costs and schedules
within defined timelines with multiple providers.

Disadvantage:

25% of Waltham Forest tree works are ad-hoc or emergency, framework
is not suitable for this type of reactionary work

24hr call out service required which cannot be easily covered under
a framework

Delays in planned works by tendering each survey batch which could
present a physical risk if urgent works are required.

Councils that have adopted this approach have more tree officers to
procure batches of works, this would be required to deliver this
type of contract and require an increased revenue budget.

Option 3 (Preferred Option) –

Tender for a single contract procurement through ‘Open
Process’ on London Tenders Portal

Advantages:

This option affords the Council the opportunity to set its own
Terms and Conditions

The Council can invite all companies to tender; including those
that are not on a framework

Economies of scale.

A single contract can be manged with the current council staff
resources already in place.

Provider can gain borough wide knowledge for faster reactions to
emergency works.

Disadvantages:

It is not clear if individual work rates will be higher than
packaging small tenders of work via a framework which would be bid
for and awarded to the lowest offer.

It is not known how many suppliers would want to tender through
this route, but some interest has been shown through soft marketing
to local contractors operating in other boroughs.