Official UK procurement notice
Payment services provider and merchant acquirer for card payments at Cheshire East Borough Council's Car Parks
Authority: Cheshire East Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionA tender for the provision of Combined Payment Services/ Merchant acquirer (PSP/MA) for car parking machines across Cheshire East Borough. This requirement is for an end to end payment processing service. The winning bidder must be able to provide Combined Payment Services Provider /Merchant Acquiring for 3 types of parking payment machines across the borough.
- The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 12 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT.
CPV: Software package and information systems
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1Lot 1RenewalPublished value£400,000
- Value
- £400,000 exc. VAT · £480,000 inc. VAT
- Extensions
- Initial contract period is 3 years to January 2030 with 1 x 12 month extension - giving a final possible end date of January 2031
What it takes to wini
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 morei
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).
Published award criteria (3)
- Price — As per tender documents.
- Quality — Downtime - fault resolution process and how issues are resolved, and how quickly are issues resolved and how do you inform the Council? Ensure fast efficient transactions at the payment machines and how you remedy slow processing speeds Actions you take to review the contract with council staff e.g. account review meetings on a quarterly basis
- Social Value — Suppliers Social Value offer, as per tender documents.
- Economic & financial standingAs per the requirements of tender pack and the Software and Hardware services agreement.
- Technical & professional abilityRelevant Experience and Contract Examples Details of up to three contracts to meet the technical ability criteria set out in the Associated Tender Documents You should demonstrate how your contracts and experience meet the critical project specific requirements as outlined in the tender documents.
Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid
How Cheshire East Council buys Software package and information systems (CPV 48) — and who usually turns up
Cheshire East Council’s own published record, next to the North West England market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Software package and information systems (CPV 48) →
How the contest usually goes
Left: this authority. Right: the market where the work is delivered. Bids and award-vs-estimate pairs are per lot, from contested contracts only — direct awards (including PA 2023 transparency notices) report one bid by definition and are left out. On Procurement Act 2023 notices the count is the tenders assessed at the final stage, not every submission received; pairs compare like with like (VAT-exclusive, or VAT-inclusive on both sides). Empty means nothing was published, not filled in from elsewhere.
Cheshire East Council
contract notices in 36 months: 19 in division 48 (13 without competition) · 80 in all categories (23 without competition · 23 route not published)
i
How many companies usually bid for work like this.
Middle value of published bid counts, one per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 6 lots. 1 lots are from Procurement Act 2023 notices (bids assessed, middle 8) and 5 from older notices (bids received, middle 1).
Nothing is filled in from UK-wide numbers. An empty tile means nothing usable was published.
i
How often only one company bid.
Share of lots that received exactly one bid, on the same competitions as the bids figure.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 6 lots.
High means a thin market or an incumbent that is hard to beat.
i
Do awards for work like this land above or below the estimate.
Estimate against award per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in all categories, last 36 months: 13 pairs.
A past pattern, not a price to bid.
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.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in all categories, last 36 months: 12 notices.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
i
How often this buyer changes a notice after publishing it.
Middle number of amendments per notice. Deadline extensions and corrections both count.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in all categories, last 24 months: 151 notices.
i
How often this buyer awards without a competition.
Direct or limited awards as a share of its notices that say which procedure was used. These routes are legal in defined cases. This is just the record.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 19 notices.
North West England · Software package and information systems (CPV 48)
contract notices delivered in North West England in 36 months: 491 in division 48 (192 competed, 142 route not published)
i
How many companies usually bid for work like this.
Middle value of published bid counts, one per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this region’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 94 lots. 61 lots are from Procurement Act 2023 notices (bids assessed, middle 3) and 33 from older notices (bids received, middle 5).
Nothing is filled in from UK-wide numbers. An empty tile means nothing usable was published.
i
How often only one company bid.
Share of lots that received exactly one bid, on the same competitions as the bids figure.
Based on this region’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 94 lots.
High means a thin market or an incumbent that is hard to beat.
i
Do awards for work like this land above or below the estimate.
Estimate against award per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this region’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 49 pairs.
A past pattern, not a price to bid.
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.
Based on this region’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 63 notices.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
i
How much of this market goes to small and medium firms.
SME bidders where buyers published the split, otherwise SME winners.
Based on this region’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 72 lots.
i
How much work like this goes to companies based in the delivery region.
Awards in this category delivered here where the winner’s registered address is in the region.
Based on this region’s tenders in this industry (CPV 48), last 36 months: 214 awards.
Registered address, so a national firm with a local branch counts as outside.
i
Where this tender’s estimate would land if the usual pattern repeats.
We apply the buyer’s usual movement between estimate and award (or the region’s) to the estimate on this notice.
Based on this buyer’s own usual movement over 13 lots (all categories), applied to the £400,000 estimate on this notice.
A benchmark, not a price to bid.
Coverage and what to read with care
- Each tile 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 columns are never blended and nothing is filled from a UK-wide figure; an empty tile means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
- Coverage. Roughly 40 % of notices publish a bid count; about half publish an ITL1 delivery location, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice has none (labelled). About 30 % of award-vs-estimate pairs are exact matches — the buyer published the award at the estimate. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden.
- “Match” and “relevance” are model scores from the nightly matcher, not published facts. 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
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Open for tender
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Yes · next expected 12 Nov 2026
- First published
- 1 Oct 2026, 11:37 BST
- Last source update
- 1 Oct 2026, 11:37 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end — 11 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Authority reference
C5409- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077e76Find a Tender
- Risks
- None
How to participate & submission route
Official notice- Expression of interest (EOI)
- —
- Tender submission deadline
- 27 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- 16 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
5 published dates · Europe/London- Tender notice publishedjust passed1 Oct 2026, 11:37 BST
- Clarification questions byin 15 days16 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission deadlinein 26 days27 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Award decision expected byin 42 days11 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 123 days1 Feb 2027, 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- Tender notice published1 Oct 2026, 11:37 BSTUK4
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Conflict of interest declarationNot published
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender