Official UK procurement notice
Preliminary Market Engagement - Food Waste Solution
Authority: Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC (Public body)·Consortium: 3 public authorities
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionNote this is a market testing exercise and not a full contract notice - procurement exercise and will help inform the council strategy for future procurement of this service.
Background
In 2013 the Local Authorities of Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT), Merthyr Tydfil, and Newport City Councils came together to form the Tomorrows Valley hub (the hub). RCT as a lead authority for the hub procured the food waste treatment contract, awarded in November 2013 to Biogen UK Ltd with a duration of 15 years.
A 1MW AD facility was constructed under a Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) contract on a land owned by RCT at Bryn Pica. The facility has a capacity of 22,500 tonnes per annum and attracts Feed-in-Tarriff (Fit) that will continue until November 2033 (20 years from contract start date).
The facility benefits from an Environmental Permit issued by NRW (Natural Resources Wales) and planning permission for access, tipping, digestion and digestate output to PAS110 QP (Quality Protocol) standard.
Whilst the hub has an option to extend the contract for a further 10-year period in two 5-year extension periods, it would also like to consider alternative options for the treatment of its food waste from 15th November 2028 that may offer better overall value for money. These options include procuring a new Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contract for its existing facility or procuring a new merchant contract for the treatment of its food waste elsewhere.
CPV: Refuse and waste related services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC buys Refuse and waste related services (CPV 9050), and who usually turns up
Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC’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: Refuse and waste related services (CPV 9050) →
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 Wales (Cymru).
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 42 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 bid17% / 4%
2–332% / 83%
4–629% / 13%
7+22% / 0%
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 estimate26% / 56%
Within ±2%47% / 44%
Above estimate26% / 0%
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 9050Published estimate£6.1m
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 23 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid4%
2–383%
4–613%
7+0%
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
- 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
- 14 Apr 2026, 14:50 BST
- Last source update
- 14 Apr 2026, 14:50 BST
- Authority reference
RCT73- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-033828- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068221Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
14 Apr 2026 → 16 Nov 2028 · 4 dates- Planning notice published195 days ago14 Apr 2026, 14:50 BST
- Market engagement171 days ago7 May 2026, 23:59 BST
Please note, the details linked to this UK2 notice is located via Etenderwales pqq 33852
- Today26 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expected1 Jan 2028, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts16 Nov 2028
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published14 Apr 2026, 14:50 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
3 public bodies on the noticeConsortium members and other public bodies
- Merthyr Tydfil County Borough CouncilContracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentWelsh devolved regulations apply
- Newport City CouncilContracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentWelsh devolved regulations apply
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