Purpose

The Council awarded a
project of cutting firebreaks on the Council’s three
heathland sites, and vegetation cut and collecting on seven other
Council-owned countryside sites, to a contractor trading under the
name of ‘Brown’ following a procurement exercise in
2023.

This work needs to be
undertaken annually, so an option of a three-year extension was
included at the time of the procurement, with the approval of the
Council’s then procurement officer. This extension is
currently in operation, with the contractor having carried out the
work in 2023 and 2024. Following advice from the Council’s
current procurement team, it was decided to put a contract in place
to cover the remaining years of this extension (2025 and
2026).

 The Council’s legal team have produced a
contract which has been signed by the contractor. Approval is now
sought for the legal team to sign this contract so it can come into
operation for the contractor to start the vegetation cutting for
this current year.

 The value of the contract is £17000 per year,
with the option of an inflationary uplift in 2026 only if requested
by the contractor and robust evidence of increased costs is
provided.

 It is anticipated that this project will be
re-procured once the contract expires in 2027.
 

Content

Approval for the
Council’s legal team to sign and formalise a contract which
has been drawn up for a previously procured contractor to cut
firebreaks and other vegetation on ten of the council’s
countryside sites. This contract will be valid for this project in
2025 and 2026 at a value of £17000 each year.
 

Reasons for the decision

The annual cutting of
firebreaks on our heathland sites is essential to maintain wildfire
resilience and is a requirement of our Countryside Stewardship
grant funding agreements with Natural England.
 
The
annual cut and collect of vegetation on other grassland sites is
key to maintaining their biodiversity and landscape value,
preventing species-rich grassland from becoming coarse and
succeeding to scrub.

Alternative options considered

To not carry out
annual firebreak and vegetation cutting. This would greatly
increase the risk of uncontrolled wildfire on the Council’s
heathland sites and reduce the biodiversity and landscape value of
many of the Council’s valuable open grassland and parkland
sites.