SC22137 - Highway Weed Control Services

Kent County Council (the Council) is the largest county council in England, covering an area of 3 500 square kilometres. It has an annual expenditure of over GBP 900 000 000 on goods and services and a population of 1 300 000. The Council provides a wide range of personal and strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils and 305 parish and town councils. The Council is responsible for maintaining over 8 700 km of carriageways and 6 300 km of footways across the County.

This service is for highway weed control spraying, provided primarily through programmed work with flexibility for additional ad-hoc provision.

This contract will facilitate two programmed weed treatments per year to highway hard surfaces. The contract will also provide for the treatment of noxious weeds such as Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed.

Consideration is being given to evaluate a commercial strategy which will lot the districts into an appropriate quantity of work. The Contract is currently arranged as follows:

Lot 1 – Dartford & Gravesham

Lot 2 – Sevenoaks & Tonbridge & Malling

Lot 3 – Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells

Lot 4 – Ashford & Swale

Lot 5 – Canterbury & Thanet

Procurement process:

It is our current intention to use the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation for the procurement process, although this will be confirmed in 2022 as part of our Commercial Strategy. The Selection Questionnaire will be released in Summer 2022, with the ITT following this later in the year. Further details will be released via the Kent Business Portal.

Market engagement:

As part of this process, the Council wishes to engage with the market to gain their insights and experience in this field as well as strategies for reducing herbicide usage. We intend to conduct some market engagement meetings during the week of 16 - 20 May 2022. We will send invites to these meetings based on responses to the below question. Please express an interest in this opportunity, and then provide your response to the following via the Messages facility on the Kent Business Portal:

The Council will use this engagement to inform interested suppliers of our progress and may also ask for feedback on potential proposals as they develop.

Organisations who do not express an interest in response to this PIN will not be precluded from applying to take part in the Council's chosen procurement strategy and conclusion of our engagement findings will be shared with the published call or calls for competition.

Forms for completion:

Please find attached a Market Engagement Questionnaire designed to gather information relating to this tender, which will be used to inform KCC’s strategy for commissioning these services.

Please complete and return via the Message function on the Kent Business Portal no later than 12:00 noon on 29th April 2022.