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Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 8 Apr 2026, 12:01 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Alley Gate Maintenance Repairs and Key Replacements

Official notice Competition analysis

Authority: Knowsley Council (Local council)

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Sectors: Construction Materials & Prefab (44)Repair & Maintenance (50) Delivery: North West (UKD7)
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 31 May 2029 · starts 1 Jun 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Knowsley Council requires a competent and experienced contractor to deliver reactive and planned maintenance services for alley gates across the borough. The service will ensure that alley gates remain secure, functional, safe for public use, and compliant with relevant standards.

The contractor will carry out a range of repair and replacement tasks including call outs, lock and mechanism replacements, and key/fob management.

CPV: Door locks · Gates · Repair and maintenance services of mechanical building installations

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 3 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Jun 2026 – 31 May 2029 (3 yrs)
Delivery: North WestEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
44221300 Gates44521110 Door locks50712000 Repair and maintenance services of mechanical building installations

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Knowsley Council buys Locks, keys and hinges (CPV 4452), and who usually turns up

Knowsley Council’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Locks, keys and hinges (CPV 4452) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerKnowsley Council · all categories
The marketLocks, keys and hinges (CPV 4452)
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 27 of 38 known-size awards · market: CPV 4452 · UK-wide, n=11
71%100%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 50 of 59 known-location awards · market: CPV 4452 · UK-wide, n=12
85%33%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 8 decided notices · market: division 44 · North West England, n=26
76 days23 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 76 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 12 of 56 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4452 · UK-wide, n=19
21%58%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer18 lots with bid counts · all categories
11% had one bid
The market6 lots with bid counts · CPV 4452 · UK-wide
33% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid11% / 33%
Buyer: 2 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
2–322% / 33%
Buyer: 4 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
4–656% / 0%
Buyer: 10 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
7+11% / 33%
Buyer: 2 of 18 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 6 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer15 lots with estimate and award · all categories
67% below estimate
The market5 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4452 · UK-wide
20% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate67% / 20%
Buyer: 10 of 15 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 1 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%33% / 40%
Buyer: 5 of 15 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0% / 40%
Buyer: 0 of 15 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 445236 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 35 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet0% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 35 similar lots
1 bid0%
0 of 35 similar past lots received 1 bid (0%).
2–334%
12 of 35 similar past lots received 2–3 (34%).
4–640%
14 of 35 similar past lots received 4–6 (40%).
7+26%
9 of 35 similar past lots received 7+ (26%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
8 Apr 2026, 12:01 BST
Last source update
8 Apr 2026, 12:10 BST
Authority reference
DN812283
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-031877
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Door locksGatesRepair and maintenance services of mechanical building installations
Delivery area
North West (UKD7)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067dca Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

8 Apr 2026 → 1 Jun 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published200 days ago
    8 Apr 2026, 12:01 BST
  2. Market engagement185 days ago
    22 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST

    Knowsley Council, supported by STAR Procurement, is seeking to engage with the supplier market ahead of a potential procurement for the provision of Alley Gate Maintenance and Key Replacements.

    The purpose of this Soft Market Testing (SMT) exercise is to:

    • Understand supplier interest and capability
    • Test deliverability of response times and technical elements
    • Identify any commercial or operational barriers
    • Refine the specification and pricing structure before tender publication

    This SMT process is informal and non-competitive.

    It does not form part of the evaluation process and does not provide any advantage or guarantee of future involvement.

    Access the Soft Market Test documentation here

    procontract.due-north.com/Advert ↗

  3. Contract starts146 days ago
    1 Jun 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 8 Apr 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 Apr 2026, 12:01 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 Apr 2026, 12:10 BST
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

Added the link to the opportunity on The Chest.

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Knowsley Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PXQQ-8436-NWPV Municipal Building, Archway Road, Huyton, North West, L36 9YUContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure