Official UK procurement notice
Bus Shelter Operating Contract
Authority: Swale Borough Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionBus Shelter Operating Contract – Swale Borough Council Area
This Notice provides information of a future opportunity to provide a bus shelter supply, operation and maintenance service for bus shelter locations and infrastructure in the Swale Borough area in Kent.
Swale Borough Council (SBC) would like to engage with bus shelter providers in regard to supply, installation and maintenance of bus shelters, including some possible living roof shelters, for bus shelter infrastructure managed by SBC in the Swale area and to agree a preferred supplier and product as per SBC’s specification.
SBC requests that interested suppliers express an interest in this opportunity and share their thoughts and expertise to assist SBC to determine and shape the specification. The solution can be a new design or based on an existing design used elsewhere. Integrated advertising within the shelters can be traditional posters or, subject to location agreement, digital media screens.
Providers that are interested but are not registered on the Delta eSourcing portal should register at the following address in the first instance: login.bipsolutions.com/casDelta/login ↗
The Council intends to hold a competitive tendering process during 2025/26, to secure these new bus shelters. It is the Council’s aim to make the procurement process as easy as possible for bidders to complete. It is anticipated that the initial contract of supply and maintenance will run for approximately 5 years with the provision for an extension of up to 5 years, and a commencement date of April 2026.
We would be particularly interested to hear whether you think there is any potential for income generation for the Council through advertising, or whether there is scope to provide living roof shelters at particular locations.
For more information about this opportunity, please visit the Delta eSourcing portal at:
www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-Sittin… ↗
To respond to this opportunity, please click here:
CPV: Advertising services · Bus shelters · Miscellaneous repair and maintenance services · Repair and maintenance services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Swale Borough Council buys Advertising and marketing services (CPV 7934), and who usually turns up
Swale 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: Advertising and marketing services (CPV 7934) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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 registered in South East England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in South East England.
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.
Half of these awards were announced within 11 days of the bid deadline.
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.
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.
1 bid4%
2–331%
4–619%
7+46%
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.
Below estimate23%
Within ±2%64%
Above estimate14%
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.
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 7934No real estimate
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 26 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid4%
2–331%
4–619%
7+46%
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.
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.
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.
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
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Concession
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 29 Oct 2025, 16:05 GMT
- Last source update
- 29 Oct 2025, 16:05 GMT
- Authority reference
PA48- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-069513- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05d697Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
29 Oct 2025 → 1 Apr 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published355 days ago29 Oct 2025, 16:05 GMT
- Market engagement334 days ago19 Nov 2025, 23:59 GMT
The proposed contract will commence in April 2026 and will runs for approximately 5 years with the provision for an extension of up to 5 years.
Does the proposed 5 year term for the contract make this financially viable in terms of supplying and installing at least 33 new shelters, including electrical connections?
If the new contract is not awarded to the current provider, the intention is for them to remove their existing assets within 3-4 months of the new contract commencing.
The new shelters would need to be installed as the existing shelters are removed to minimise the period of time when bus stops will not have accompanying shelters. Does this timeline provide you with any issues in terms of delivery?
The new contract will include a 4 hour response time to attend to any damage which occurs to your shelters, and a 3 hour response time for any broken glass within the shelter.
Are these response times achievable for your company?
The new contract would be looking at the existing Borough Council owned assets of around 43 shelters of varying specifications and condition to see whether the successful tenderer would offer to take over responsibility and maintenance for some or all of these shelters.
Is this something you could offer, either in terms of taking over some of all of these shelters, possibly adding advertising subject to the necessary planning permission?
The current contract does not incorporate a ban on adverts for foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), but this may be something considered in the future.
We will therefore request two options for the new contract, Option 1 with a ban on HFSS adverts and Option 2 without the ban.
With national plans currently being discussed relating to Local Government Re-organisation, the new contract will include a novation clause allowing Swale Borough Council to be replaced by any successor authority. Do you have any comments on this ?
Any other comments?
Comments should be submitted via the Delta eSourcing portal (Access code: SC25RWNJ37) or to [email protected]
- Contract starts202 days ago1 Apr 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published29 Oct 2025, 16:05 GMTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender