Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 23 Jan 2026, 11:30 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

ANDBC Preliminary Market Engagement Exercise - Ride, Pedal and Motivate (RPM) Animation Project (PEACEPLUS)

Authority: Ards and North Down Borough Council (Local council)

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£193,070pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 24 Apr 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 31 Jul 2028 · starts 31 Jul 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Ards and North Down Borough Council (the Council) is preparing to undertake a transparent and informed preliminary market engagement exercise to support the delivery of a local PEACEPLUS animation project. The purpose of this preliminary market engagement is to seek feedback and insights from experienced suppliers to help shape the project specification for the appointment of a competent and suitable supplier or a collaborative partnership. The supplier(s) will be responsible for the design and delivery of the Ride, Pedal and Motivate (RPM) PEACEPLUS animation project. The information provided in the completed questionnaire will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise. Please note that participation or non-participation in this preliminary market engagement exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any potential procurement process, nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any forthcoming procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the pre-market engagement (PME) questionnaire. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from the CfT documents area within eTendersNI (etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home.do ↗) and locate CfT ref 6362091. The questionnaire must be completed and returned via the Messaging function of eTendersNI in accordance with the instructions detailed in the PME Questionnaire document. There are no formal tender documents to be completed other than the questionnaire. **PLEASE NOTE: ALL COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA THE MESSAGING FUNCTION on eTendersNI, before 12noon on FRIDAY 6th FEBRUARY 2026**

CPV: Community action programme · Other community, social and personal services · Provision of services to the community · Sport-related services · Sporting services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How Ards and North Down Borough Council buys Social services (CPV 8532), and who usually turns up

Ards and North Down Borough Council’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Social services (CPV 8532) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerArds and North Down Borough Council · all categories
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: 50 of 55 known-size awards · market: CPV 8532 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=26
91%92%

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.

Here, local means the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 12 of 18 known-location awards · market: CPV 8532 · UK-wide, n=988
67%80%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Northern Ireland.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 11 decided notices · market: CPV 8532 · UK-wide, n=60
84 days45 days

Half of these awards were announced within 84 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 11 of 28 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 8532 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=29
39%59%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

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 buyer59 lots with bid counts · all categories
36% had one bid
The market21 lots with bid counts · CPV 8532 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
57% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid36% / 57%
Buyer: 21 of 59 lots with published bid counts. Market: 12 of 21 lots with published bid counts.
2–337% / 38%
Buyer: 22 of 59 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 21 lots with published bid counts.
4–620% / 5%
Buyer: 12 of 59 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 21 lots with published bid counts.
7+7% / 0%
Buyer: 4 of 59 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 21 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 buyer30 lots with estimate and award · all categories
50% below estimate
The market11 lots with estimate and award · CPV 8532 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
9% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate50% / 9%
Buyer: 15 of 30 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 1 of 11 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%37% / 91%
Buyer: 11 of 30 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 10 of 11 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate13% / 0%
Buyer: 4 of 30 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 11 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 853224 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£193k
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 21 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet57% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 21 similar lots
1 bid57%
12 of 21 similar past lots received 1 bid (57%).
2–338%
8 of 21 similar past lots received 2–3 (38%).
4–65%
1 of 21 similar past lots received 4–6 (5%).
7+0%
0 of 21 similar past lots received 7+ (0%).
Check who supplied similar work and whether the route limits bidders.
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £193k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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
23 Jan 2026, 11:30 GMT
Last source update
23 Jan 2026, 11:30 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-006112
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Community action programmeOther community, social and personal servicesProvision of services to the communitySport-related servicesSporting services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060d22 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

23 Jan 2026 → 31 Jul 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published272 days ago
    23 Jan 2026, 11:30 GMT
  2. Market engagement258 days ago
    6 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Ards and North Down Borough Council (the Council) is preparing to undertake a transparent and informed preliminary market engagement exercise to support the delivery of a local PEACEPLUS animation project. The purpose of this preliminary market engagement is to seek feedback and insights from experienced suppliers to help shape the project specification for the appointment of a competent and suitable supplier or a collaborative partnership. The supplier(s) will be responsible for the design and delivery of the Ride, Pedal and Motivate (RPM) PEACEPLUS animation project. The information provided in the completed questionnaire will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise. Please note that participation or non-participation in this preliminary market engagement exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any potential procurement process, nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any forthcoming procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the pre-market engagement (PME) questionnaire. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from the CfT documents area within eTendersNI (etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home.do ↗) and locate CfT ref 6362091. The questionnaire must be completed and returned via the Messaging function of eTendersNI in accordance with the instructions detailed in the PME Questionnaire document. There are no formal tender documents to be completed other than the questionnaire. **PLEASE NOTE: ALL COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA THE MESSAGING FUNCTION on eTendersNI, before 12noon on FRIDAY 6th FEBRUARY 2026**

  3. Tender notice expected181 days ago
    24 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts84 days ago
    31 Jul 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    23 Jan 2026, 11:30 GMT
    UK2

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

Ards and North Down Borough Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PTTZ-3295-PYCW The Castle, City Hall, Bangor, Northern Ireland, BT20 4BTContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure