Official UK procurement notice
Stage Infrastructure Preliminary Market Engagement
Authority: Castle Point Borough Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe management and operation of the Paddocks Community Centre, a community venue in Canvey Island that has recently undergone a £2.3 million refurbishment. The Mercury Hall has a capacity of 500 seated / 560 standing and hosts a wide variety of events including DJ nights, tribute shows, comedy evenings, bingo, fitness classes, amateur and school theatre productions, pantomime, and meetings.The Council now wishes to procure a contractor to design, supply and install a complete stage technical infrastructure package. The scope includes: a flying and rigging system (motorised and manual elements, with LOLER certification at handover); a full stage lighting system with wash and profile fixtures, dimmable house lighting, and a front-of-house lighting desk with backstage simple controls; a professional sound system including a digital FOH desk, digital multicore, radio microphones, monitor wedges, DI boxes, and an assistive listening device; a motorised projection screen and suitable projector with HDMI connectivity; wireless communications headsets; all associated cabling, power distribution, and control systems. The system must cater for events ranging from simple fitness classes operated without a technician through to full theatrical productions, and should be future-proofed for at least ten years.
CPV: Acoustic devices · Installation services of radio, television, sound and video equipment · Lighting equipment and electric lamps · Miscellaneous structures · Multimedia equipment
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Castle Point Borough Council buys Structures and parts of structures (CPV 4421), and who usually turns up
Castle Point Borough Council’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: Structures and parts of structures (CPV 4421) →
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 East of England.
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 61 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 bid11% / 0%
2–333% / 40%
4–622% / 20%
7+33% / 40%
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 estimate88% / 43%
Within ±2%13% / 39%
Above estimate0% / 17%
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 4421Published estimate£100k
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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 36 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid3%
2–331%
4–633%
7+33%
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
- Below threshold
- 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
- 23 Mar 2026, 19:54 GMT
- Last source update
- 23 Mar 2026, 20:39 GMT
- Authority reference
EPP0344- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-026544- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06720dFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
23 Mar 2026 → 8 Jun 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published215 days ago23 Mar 2026, 19:54 GMT
- Market engagement200 days ago7 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
Castle Point Borough Council, supported by the Essex Procurement Partnership (EPP), is undertaking a pre-procurement market engagement exercise for the supply and installation of professional-grade stage technical infrastructure at the Mercury Hall, Paddocks Community Centre, Canvey Island, Essex.
The Paddocks Community Centre has recently undergone a £2.3 million refurbishment. The Mercury Hall has a capacity of 500 seated / 560 standing and hosts a diverse programme of events including DJ nights, tribute shows, comedy evenings, bingo, fitness classes, amateur and school theatre productions, pantomime, and meetings.
The Council wishes to procure a contractor to design, supply and install a complete stage technical infrastructure package. The scope includes: a flying and rigging system (motorised and manual elements, with LOLER certification at handover); a full stage lighting system with wash and profile fixtures, dimmable house lighting, and a front-of-house lighting desk with backstage simple controls; a professional sound system including a digital FOH desk, digital multicore, radio microphones, monitor wedges, DI boxes, and an assistive listening device; a motorised projection screen and suitable projector with HDMI connectivity; wireless communications headsets; and all associated cabling, power distribution, and control systems. The system must serve events ranging from simple fitness classes operated without a technician through to full theatrical productions, and should be future-proofed for at least ten years.
The estimated budget for the project is £80,000-£95,000 for supply and installation, with a separate anticipated annual servicing requirement of approximately £1,500 per annum.
HOW TO RESPOND:
Please download the Market Engagement questionnaire document attached by following this link: procontract.due-north.com/Procurer/Advert/View ↗
Complete all relevant sections and return your response via the Procontract messaging function for project EPP0344 by the deadline below. Participation in this market engagement is voluntary and will not advantage or disadvantage any organisation in any future procurement process.
KEY DATES:
Market Engagement Issued: 23 March 2026
Response Deadline: 7 April 2026 (12:00 noon)
Tender Published (via Procontract): 13 April 2026
Site Visit: 24 April 2026
Tender Closes: 8 May 2026
Evaluation Complete: 26 May 2026
Contract Award and commencement: June 2026
CLARIFICATIONS:
Any questions or requests for clarification should be submitted through the Procontract messaging function under project reference EPP0344. All clarification responses will be shared with all registered respondents (with any confidential information redacted). EPP and Castle Point Borough Council reserve the right to decline to answer any question if doing so would jeopardise a future procurement exercise.
DISCLAIMER:
This market engagement is for information-gathering purposes only. It is not an invitation to tender, a request for quotation, or a pre-qualification questionnaire. No contractual commitment will result from this exercise. The Council's current assessment is that a Procurement Act 2023 Open Tender will be the most appropriate route to market for the formal procurement, which will be published separately on Procontract under the same reference (EPP0344).
- Contract starts139 days ago8 Jun 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
3 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 23 Mar 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published23 Mar 2026, 19:54 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published23 Mar 2026, 20:32 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published23 Mar 2026, 20:39 GMTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender