Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 29 Apr 2026, 17:10 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council Haysden Country Park – New Bridge Supplier Engagement

Authority: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (Local council)

WorksBelow threshold
Planned pipeline value£0pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 moends 22 May 2026 · starts 30 Apr 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) is inviting interested parties to take part in a supplier engagement exercise for the delivery of a new pedestrian bridge within Haysden Country Park.

At this stage, the Council has not determined the preferred route for delivering the project, including procurement strategy or contract structure. TMBC is therefore engaging with the market to explore potential delivery options, gather early technical and commercial insights, and gauge current market interest.

TMBC invites interested suppliers to attend a site visit to view the proposed bridge location and surrounding area.

For more information about this opportunity and to respond, please visit the Kent Business Portal at: www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk/respond/F333U334K3 ↗

For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:

www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk/tenders/UK-UK-West-M… ↗

To respond to this opportunity, please click here:

www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk/respond/F333U334K3 ↗

CPV: Bridge · Bridge construction work · Construction work for bridges · Footbridge construction work

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council buys Engineering works and construction works (CPV 4522), and who usually turns up

Tonbridge and Malling 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: Engineering works and construction works (CPV 4522) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerTonbridge and Malling Borough 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: 7 of 11 known-size awards · market: CPV 4522 · South East England, n=16
64%50%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in South East England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 of 7 known-location awards · market: CPV 4522 · South East England, n=27
43%52%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 9 decided notices · market: CPV 4522 · South East England, n=5
33 days32 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 33 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 6 of 14 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4522 · South East England, n=34
43%26%

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 buyer10 lots with bid counts · all categories
30% had one bid
The market5 lots with bid counts · CPV 4522 · South East England
0% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid30% / 0%
Buyer: 3 of 10 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
2–330% / 60%
Buyer: 3 of 10 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
4–610% / 20%
Buyer: 1 of 10 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
7+30% / 20%
Buyer: 3 of 10 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 5 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 buyer5 lots with estimate and award · all categories
20% below estimate
The market5 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4522 · South East England
100% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate20% / 100%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%80% / 0%
Buyer: 4 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 5 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0% / 0%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 5 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 45221 monthNo real estimate
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 314 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet12% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 314 similar lots
1 bid12%
39 of 314 similar past lots received 1 bid (12%).
2–323%
71 of 314 similar past lots received 2–3 (23%).
4–629%
90 of 314 similar past lots received 4–6 (29%).
7+36%
114 of 314 similar past lots received 7+ (36%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No real estimate
The buyer published £0 as the estimate (a placeholder, not the contract’s value), so there is nothing to forecast against.

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.

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.

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
Works
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
29 Apr 2026, 17:10 BST
Last source update
29 Apr 2026, 17:10 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-039479
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
BridgeBridge construction workConstruction work for bridgesFootbridge construction work
Delivery area
South East (UKJ46)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068e78 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

29 Apr 2026 → 22 May 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published178 days ago
    29 Apr 2026, 17:10 BST
  2. Contract starts178 days ago
    30 Apr 2026, 00:00 BST
  3. Market engagement155 days ago
    22 May 2026, 23:59 BST

    Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) is inviting interested parties to take part in a supplier engagement exercise for the delivery of a new pedestrian bridge within Haysden Country Park.

    At this stage, the Council has not determined the preferred route for delivering the project, including procurement strategy or contract structure. TMBC is therefore engaging with the market to explore potential delivery options, gather early technical and commercial insights, and gauge current market interest.

    TMBC invites interested suppliers to attend a site visit to view the proposed bridge location and surrounding area.

    Site visits will be 1-hour blocks on Wednesday 13th May 2026. Please request your preferred time via the messaging facility on the Kent Business Portal.

    Interested parties are invited to submit their responses to the bullet points above, in either Microsoft Word or PDF format. Responses should be limited to 500 words per bullet point for the purposes of this exercise. All submissions must be made via the Kent Business Portal. Submissions must be submitted by 5pm on the 22/05/2026.

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    29 Apr 2026, 17:10 BST
    UK2

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

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PBNB-2692-VQCJ Gibson Building, Gibson Dr, Kings Hill, West Malling, South East, ME19 4LZContact email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure