Find a TenderOpen for tender Tender notice
Published 7 Oct 2026, 14:08 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Consultation Services for Existing Town Plan Reviews, and Rural Place Plan Review Development for Gilford, Keady and Rathfriland

Authority: Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council (Local council)

ServicesBelow threshold - open competitionBelow threshold
Sectors: Research & Development (R&D) (73) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Published estimate£54,000≈ £41k / year · £54,000 inc. VAT
Submission deadline 28 Oct 202612:00 GMT · 20d 21h left
Clarification cut-off 21 Oct 202612:00 BST · questions to the authority
Contract term 1 yr 4 mostarts 9 Nov 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council invites Tenders from suitably experienced and qualified Consultant Teams to review existing town plans and develop Rural Place Plan Reviews for the three places of Gilford, Keady and Rathfriland. Further detail available within Documents section of eTendersNI CfT workspace.

CPV: Development consultancy services · Research and development consultancy services · Research and development services and related consultancy services · Research consultancy services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · value published
Lot #1 1 yr 4 moPublished value£54,000
Contract period: 9 Nov 2026 — 29 Feb 2028 (1 yr 4 mo)Turnover guideline: ~£82,469/yr≈ 2× annual value
Value
£54,000 exc. VAT · £54,000 inc. VAT
73000000 Research and development services and related consultancy services73200000 Research and development consultancy services73210000 Research consultancy services73220000 Development consultancy services

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published — the tender pack may add more
How bids are scored

75% Quality / 25% Cost

No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.

What this means for your bid
  • Turnover usually expected at this size: about £82,469 (twice the annual value).

Turnover is an indicative market norm (≈2× annual value), not a published condition.

Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid

How Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council buys Research consultancy services (CPV 7321) — and who usually turns up

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council’s own published record, next to the Northern Ireland market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Research consultancy services (CPV 7321) →

1

How the contest usually goes

This buyer’s published record next to the market where the work is delivered — contested contracts only, counted per lot

Question for the bid
The marketResearch consultancy services (CPV 7321) · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
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: 36 of 51 known-size awards · market: CPV 7321, n=13
71%69%

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 registered in Northern Ireland.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 4 known-location awards · market: CPV 7321, n=4
2 of 44 of 4

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: 22 decided notices · market: no dates
33 days—

Half of these awards were announced within 33 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.

The buyer’s share is a minimum: 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 7 of 64 awarded contracts without a rival · market: n=12
11%17%

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 buyer42 lots with bid counts · all categories
24% had one bid
The market11 lots with bid counts · CPV 7321
9% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid24% / 9%
Buyer: 10 of 42 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 11 lots with published bid counts.
2–362% / 45%
Buyer: 26 of 42 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 11 lots with published bid counts.
4–612% / 27%
Buyer: 5 of 42 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 11 lots with published bid counts.
7+2% / 18%
Buyer: 1 of 42 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 11 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 buyer42 lots with estimate and award · all categories
38% below estimate
The market8 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7321
38% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate38% / 38%
Buyer: 16 of 42 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 3 of 8 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%38% / 63%
Buyer: 16 of 42 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 8 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate24% / 0%
Buyer: 10 of 42 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 8 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 7321 16 monthsPublished value£54,000
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.

The bar shows 11 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—9% single-bid risk
Past bids on 11 similar lots
1 bid9%
1 of 11 similar past lots received 1 bid (9%).
2–345%
5 of 11 similar past lots received 2–3 (45%).
4–627%
3 of 11 similar past lots received 4–6 (27%).
7+18%
2 of 11 similar past lots received 7+ (18%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the winning 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 guide, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet — the published estimate is £54k, 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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueMatch
—

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.

SupplierWon in this categoryLive contractsAward vs estimate
—
Coverage and what to read with care
  • Each figure explains itself. The on a figure says what it is, how it is counted and which scope this notice’s own record came from (class, division, all categories, or the authority’s 24-month row). The two sides are never blended. A lot’s own market is read at its delivery region where the lot names one; where it names several, or none that can be resolved, the chart falls back to the UK-wide record for the same category and says so under the bar. An empty cell means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
  • When we call out a difference. A buyer figure is only flagged against the market when the sample is large enough that the gap is unlikely to be chance; at most two callouts appear, always phrased as a comparison with both numbers and the sample size.
  • Coverage (re-measured 5 Oct on the live record, 94,497 awarded procedures of the last three years). 51 % publish a bid count and 72 % a delivery region, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice names none, labelled. Of the 17,687 award-vs-estimate pairs, 34 % sit exactly on the estimate — the buyer published the award at the figure it advertised. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden, and a distribution is not drawn as percentages below ten observations.
  • “Match”, text similarity, the expected-bid figure and the distribution drawn beneath it are model outputs, not published facts or win probabilities. Find a Tender does not publish who is bidding. Never shown: contact details, payment behaviour, or a recommended price.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Below threshold - open competition
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Open for tender
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
No (one-off requirement)
First published
7 Oct 2026, 14:08 BST
Last source update
7 Oct 2026, 14:08 BST
Latest notice
Tender notice (UK4)
Classification (CPV)
Development consultancy servicesResearch and development consultancy servicesResearch and development services and related consultancy servicesResearch consultancy services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0782c8 Find a Tender

How to participate & submission route

Official notice Submit via eTendersNI
Submission portal named on this notice: eTendersNI · Who buys & how to bid on eTendersNI
Supplier login requiredElectronic submission allowed
Access & registration note: Free Northern Ireland registration
Expression of interest (EOI)
—
Tender submission deadline
28 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
Clarification deadline
21 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
Submission channel
Official e-sourcing portal
Electronic submission
Allowed
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release
Published estimate £54,000 excludes VAT (£54,000 including VAT).

Timeline

4 published dates · Europe/London
  1. Tender notice publishedearlier today
    7 Oct 2026, 14:08 BST
  2. Clarification questions byin 14 days
    21 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
  3. Submission deadlinein 21 days
    28 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
  4. Contract startsin 32 days
    9 Nov 2026, 00:00 GMT

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Nothing awarded yet
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Tender notice published
    7 Oct 2026, 14:08 BSTUK4

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PYMV-3527-LYNZ Craigavon Civic and Conference Centre, Lakeview Road, Craigavon, Northern Ireland, BT64 1AL [email protected]

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Tender notice tenderTender noticeUK4Tender notice on Find a Tender