Soft Market Testing Worcester Bike Share Scheme

Following Worcester’s successful award of grant funding from the Towns Fund, Worcester City Council is seeking to develop a bike share scheme to support access to bicycles across the City, including city centre, leisure, employment and education destinations and residential areas for residents and visitors within Worcester. This bike share scheme (electric and pedal) will open up cycling to more residents and visitors. By providing a bike share scheme this project will encourage the take up of cycling. It will reduce financial barriers to access and enable users to try out solutions such as e bikes without the up-front financial commitment. Worcester is a cathedral city located on the picturesque River Severn with a high-quality historic town centre and a population over 100,000. The Council has an ambition to increase the number of people using active modes which may include people visiting for leisure and tourism as well as residents in more deprived areas of Worcester. These aims sit alongside a broader aim to create “‘levelling up” opportunities for our communities and contributing positively towards a sustainable environment that will provide positive health and wellbeing outcomes for our residents. As the project delivery team for the bike share scheme develops their ideas, it is recognised that there is a mixed picture of success with similar schemes around the UK. This ‘soft market testing’ exercise is being undertaken to ensure that operators, recognised to be experts on the delivery and sustainability of bike share schemes, are able to contribute their expertise to help shape the design of the scheme. The project delivery team values your input into the detailed design of the scheme, what you think will work and what we could do to ensure long term sustainability. Additional information: The Council are using the e-procurement portal known as the Proactis Pro-Contract portal https://procontract.due-north.com to conduct this procurement exercise. To gain access to the procurement documents, contractors will need to register their company details at the above website (there is no charge for this). Once registered, contractors will be emailed a log-in and password which will allow them to gain access to the procurement documents. Contractors will need to search for the invitation under Worcester City Council and then electronically submit an expression of interest and follow the online instructions to view the procurement documents.