Decisions

This report is to get approval for the extension of the existing mechanical and electrical term maintenance contract for a period of 6 – 9 months. 

This report summarises the background to the required extension which will ensure the Council’s corporate and education premises are maintained, remain fit for purpose, safe for occupancy, and statutorily compliant.

The Council’s current Facilities Management (FM) mechanical and electrical term maintenance contract expires 03 July 2023.  This contract is for the provision of reactive repairs, minor works, planned and statutory maintenance, capital improvement, refurbishment, fit out and adaptation works across the corporate and education estate.

The content of the award report for the existing contract was endorsed by the Contracts and Commissioning Board on 2/03/2016 [CCB 1102/15-16] and this reflected the contract term of 5 years with option to extend for a further twelve months up to 2 years (5+1+1). The 2^nd extension period runs until 3^rd July 2023 and was endorsed via Contracts and Commissioning Board on 30 March 2022 CCB1734/21-22. This contract has successfully delivered mechanical and electrical maintenance, planned and reactive works, also capital improvement works across the Council including Education, Libraries and Corporate assets.

The Council is retendering a new maintenance and construction services contract which is to commence by 1^st April 2024. To ensure provision of essential maintenance and reactive repairs in the interim period between expiry of the existing contract and commencement of new, the existing arrangements with the incumbent service provider will need to be extended.

The extension period is to be for a period of up to 9 months to allow for a full 6 month mobilisation period before anticipated contract start by 1^st April 2024.The extension would also allow for a possible earlier contract start date of 1^st January 2024 should the successful contractor deem it possible and viable to mobilize within 3 months.

The incumbent has agreed to continue to provide maintenance, repair and projects delivery services on the basis of the existing contract terms and conditions, subject to an uplift for enhanced call out and contract management arrangements. The requested uplift compares favourably with inflation and has been assessed by the Property Maintenance Manager as fair and reasonable.

Performance of the required maintenance services by the incumbent would avoid the significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs arising from the appointment of a new provider for a relatively short period of time and in the context of a live procurement taking place.  Proceeding with this extension will also enable the Council to satisfy its statutory compliance obligations, keep its building and property assets operationally safe and fit for purpose, and deliver high priority capital improvement within allocated budgets.

The overall value of the services delivered under the proposed extension falls within the original OJEU award notice contract value and the extension is fully funded from existing revenue and capital budgets.

RESOLVED: To

Approve the extension by way of variation of the FM mechanical and electrical maintenance services delivered by the incumbent service provider, Atalian Servest, until the latest date of 1st April 2024; noting that the estimated service extension value of £2.269m will remain within the original maximum contract award value of £35m.