Official UK procurement notice
GROUNDS MAINTENANCE & WINTER SALTING
Authority: Devon and Cornwall Police (Police & fire)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionFour of the five South West Forces (Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire) have grounds maintenance and winter contracts in place which expire at the end of March 2027. Avon and Somerset Police currently deliver this provision in house. SWPPS are currently undertaking early market engagement and considering route to market options in order to run a successful procurement process for this requirement.
SWPPS wish to invite potential suppliers who may be interested in assisting with this early market engagement to answer a number of questions and then an opportunity to meet with SWPPS (via Teams) to discuss their responses if requested.
The purpose of the early engagement with the market, prior to undertaking a formal tender process, is to seek input from the supply market to inform our requirements, to help formulate our specification for the services and help identify routes to market.
If you are interested in supporting SWPPS with this engagement, please respond to this notice by emailing [email protected] and we will be in touch with a questionnaire for completion. We are also happy to arrange Teams calls to discuss the responses to your questionnaire if you would like. The closing date for pre-market engagement questionnaire returns and subsequent arrangement of Teams meetings will be 12 noon on 6th May 2026.
SWPPS are committed to ensuring fairness, openness and transparency, and to follow the Procurement Act 2023. The preliminary market engagement is issued solely for the purpose of conducting pre-procurement market testing and engagement. Interested parties will not be prejudiced or advantaged by any response or lack thereof to the preliminary market engagement. This preliminary market engagement does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services, supplies or works for SWPPS. SWPPS are not liable for any costs, fees, or expenses incurred by any party in replying to the preliminary market engagement.
CPV: Grounds maintenance services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Devon and Cornwall Police buys Planting and maintenance services of green areas (CPV 7731), and who usually turns up
Devon and Cornwall Police’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: Planting and maintenance services of green areas (CPV 7731) →
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.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in South West England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 32 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 bid25% / 5%
2–313% / 14%
4–663% / 30%
7+0% / 52%
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 estimate68%
Within ±2%11%
Above estimate21%
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 7731Estimate not published
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 44 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid5%
2–314%
4–630%
7+52%
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
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 15 Apr 2026, 13:38 BST
- Last source update
- 15 Apr 2026, 13:38 BST
- Authority reference
1390- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-034214- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068307Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
15 Apr 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published193 days ago15 Apr 2026, 13:38 BST
- Market engagement172 days ago6 May 2026, 23:59 BST
If you are interested in supporting SWPPS with this engagement, please respond to this notice by emailing [email protected] and we will be in touch with a questionnaire for completion. We are also happy to arrange Teams calls to discuss the responses to your questionnaire if you would like. The closing date for pre-market engagement questionnaire returns and subsequent arrangement of Teams meetings will be 12 noon on 6th May 2026.
- Tender notice expected85 days ago1 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 157 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published15 Apr 2026, 13:38 BSTUK2
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