Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 8 Oct 2026, 09:09 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Public Rights of Way Grass Cutting

Authority: Suffolk County Council (Local council)

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£775,000pipeline notice — not a live tender
Tender notice expected 2 Nov 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 31 Mar 2029 · up to 31 Mar 2031 with extensions · starts 1 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Suffolk County Council requires suitably experienced and qualified service providers to maintain the Public Rights of Way network across Suffolk.

The Council intends to undertake a future procurement exercise for the provision of Public Rights of Way (PRoW) Grass Cutting Services.

The service is expected to be divided into 16 geographical lots.

This notice is to provide information and awareness of the forthcoming opportunity.

CPV: Grounds maintenance services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Apr 2027 — 31 Mar 2029 (up to 31 Mar 2031 with extensions) · up to 4 yrs with extensionsEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligibleDelivery: East of England
Extensions
Extension options published
77314000 Grounds maintenance services

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage — how this market runs before the tender is published

How Suffolk County Council buys Planting and maintenance services of green areas (CPV 7731) — and who usually turns up

Suffolk County Council’s own published record, next to the East of England market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Planting and maintenance services of green areas (CPV 7731) →

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
This buyerSuffolk County Council · all categories
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: 56 of 99 known-size awards · market: CPV 7731, n=76
57%82%

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 East of England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 58 of 138 known-location awards · market: CPV 7731, n=94
42%43%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside East of England.

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: 12 decided notices · market: n=18
55 days35 days

Half of these awards were announced within 55 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.

Both shares are minimums: 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 48 of 85 awarded contracts without a rival · market: n=42
56%14%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer38 lots with bid counts · all categories
13% had one bid
The market57 lots with bid counts · CPV 7731
5% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid13% / 5%
Buyer: 5 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 57 lots with published bid counts.
2–324% / 14%
Buyer: 9 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 57 lots with published bid counts.
4–637% / 33%
Buyer: 14 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 19 of 57 lots with published bid counts.
7+26% / 47%
Buyer: 10 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 27 of 57 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 buyer18 lots with estimate and award · all categories
22% below estimate
The market30 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7731
37% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate22% / 37%
Buyer: 4 of 18 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 11 of 30 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%61% / 47%
Buyer: 11 of 18 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 14 of 30 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate17% / 17%
Buyer: 3 of 18 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 30 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 77315% single-bidPublished estimate£775,000
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.

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 57 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—5% single-bid risk
Past bids on 57 similar lots
1 bid5%
3 of 57 similar past lots received 1 bid (5%).
2–314%
8 of 57 similar past lots received 2–3 (14%).
4–633%
19 of 57 similar past lots received 4–6 (33%).
7+47%
27 of 57 similar past lots received 7+ (47%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 6 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 £775k, 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
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
8 Oct 2026, 09:09 BST
Last source update
8 Oct 2026, 09:09 BST
Authority reference
PA0051
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095007
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Grounds maintenance services
Delivery area
East of England (UKH14)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07834f Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

4 published dates · Europe/London
  1. Planning notice published1 day ago
    8 Oct 2026, 09:09 BST
  2. Market engagementin 22 days
    30 Oct 2026, 23:59 GMTThis notice is intended to provide information and awareness of the future opportunity. All tender documents will be published in due course with full details of the tender process and procurement requirements. These documents will be available through Suffolk Sourcing. https://supplier.in-tend.co.uk/suffolksourcing/home Interested parties are reminded to register on Central Digital Platform https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-act-2023-short-guides/suppliers-how-to-register-your-organisation-and-first-administrator-on-find-a-tender-in-three-easy-steps-html Please contact [email protected] should you require any further details.
  3. Tender notice expectedin 25 days
    2 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
  4. Contract startsin 174 days
    1 Apr 2027

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Notice history

2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 8 Oct 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 Oct 2026, 09:09 BSTUK2
  2. First planning notice published
    8 Oct 2026, 09:09 BST

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Suffolk County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PHVH-1657-HHMV Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich, East of England, IP1 2BX [email protected]

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure