Official UK procurement notice
Wantage Park Crematorium · UK public procurement notice
Authority: West Northamptonshire Council (Local council)
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is the burial authority for West Northamptonshire under 214 Local Government Act 1972 and for the purposes of the Cremation Acts of 1902 and 1952. Following assessment of the best ways of meeting the needs of Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire, respectively, the Council has concluded that it would best be secured through the delivery of a new crematorium. The facility will need to be open for public use by August 2027.
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionWest Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is the burial authority for West Northamptonshire under 214 Local Government Act 1972 and for the purposes of the Cremation Acts of 1902 and 1952. Following assessment of the best ways of meeting the needs of Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire, respectively, the Council has concluded that it would best be secured through the delivery of a new crematorium. Therefore WNC are proposing a new additional state-of-the-art crematorium and wake facility at the preferred site of Wantage Park, Round Spinney, Northampton NN3 7TR.
The proposed crematorium will include ceremonial spaces and a welcoming café for visitors with the aim of providing a vital facility for the West Northamptonshire community. With this new facility, we would aim to meet the growing needs of our population while providing a peaceful and respectful environment for bereavement services.
Wantage Park would include an energy-efficient electric cremator, heat recovery systems, solar panels, and green roofs. These features contribute to significantly lower CO2 emissions. The development’s landscaping would also support local biodiversity, enhancing the natural beauty of the area and providing a peaceful setting for visitors. Wantage Park would also offer the community additional benefits, with the surrounding land transformed into recreational spaces with walking paths and green areas, promoting outdoor activities and well-being. Careful planning will ensure the facility would have minimal visual, traffic, and noise impacts on the surrounding area.
Infrastructure improvements, such as a new independent access road and enhanced public footpaths, would further support the local community.
The design includes accessible parking, adaptable lighting for neurodiverse individuals, and functional spaces that can be used by all faiths and no faith individuals and community groups.
The Mayflower Wake Facility, part of the development, would provide a welcoming space for post-ceremony gatherings, including wakes, receptions, and other events. The facility will need to be open for public use by August 2027.
Total gross internal area: 1270.00 m²
The contract will be awarded to one contractor as a two-stage D&B (Design and Build). The successful contractor will be selected and awarded for the pre-construction phase (PCSA) (stage 1) within the ‘Invitation to Tender (ITT)’ procurement stage.
Anticipated PCSA Contract (Stage 1) Start Date 18/05/2026.
Anticipated Mobilisation and/or Transition Period 18/07/2026.
Anticipated Construction Start Date (Stage 2) 08/08/2026
The procurement procedure route will follow the Competitive Flexible process under the PA 2023, to include two stages:
- PSQ (Procurement Specific Questionnaire) Conditions of Participation stage and;
- ITT (Invitation to Tender) stage.
The Authority intends to invite only those Potential Suppliers to the ITT stage that can evidence previous Crematorium contract experience as part of their Technical and Ability response of the PSQ and Conditions of participation stage and have passed the Pass/Fail elements of the PSQ and passed the Financial checks.
The tender is subject to planning consent, the initial phase will be the publication of the Procurement Specific Questionnaire and Conditions of Participation stage. The Tender stage (ITT) will be published subject to planning consent and budget limitation.
Site visits are planned to take place during the ITT stage on 05/02/2026 and 06/02/2026 - it is advisable that the successful Potential Providers invited to the ITT stage attend and are available for those dates.
- How the procedure runs: The Authority has selected to use the Competitive Flexible Procedure under the Procurement Act 2023 as a two stage procurement process: Stage 1 ‘PSQ’ and; Stage 2 ‘ITT’ ; The Authority intends to invite only those Potential Suppliers to the ITT stage that have past Crematorium Works contract evidence only. Potential Suppliers must have past contract experience of Crematorium Works as set out in the Tender specification and procurement documents to qualify to the ITT (Invitation to Tender) stage. Where a Potential Supplier’s contract evidence is considered not to be a relevant or similar Crematorium Works contract as per the criteria set out within the Tender documents, the Potential Supplier will be Rejected from this procurement process and will not be invited through to the ITT stage. Any Potential Suppliers that do not have at least a minimum of one Crematorium Works contract example will be rejected from the procurement process and will not be invited through to the ITT (Invitation to Tender) stage. Up to three examples will be considered. The Authority intends to invite all those Potential Suppliers to the ITT stage that have evidence of previous Crematorium Works contract examples only and passed all Pass/Fail elements of the PSQ and passed the financial checks will be invited through to the ITT stage. Site Visits will only be offered to Potential Suppliers that are invited through to the ITT stage, taking place on 05/02/2026 and 06/02/2026.
CPV: Building construction work · Construction work for crematoriums
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1Published value£9,100,000
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published award criteria (3)
- Quality: Award Criteria Questionnaire will be evaluated and scored a maximum of 4 marks following the Scoring Methodology table detailed within the ITT document, a Tender Response may be rejected, where the response to any Quality Question fails to achieve a score of 2, even if it scores relatively well against all other criteria. Moderated scores will be divided by 4 and multiplied by the sub weighting (%) of the question, to give a final score (%) for each question. Full scoring criteria is described within the ITT document.
- Social Value: Criteria is detailed in the Social Value Spreadsheet - criteria is split between Qualitative and Quantitative to be added to the Quality scoring/weightings.
- Price: The Potential Supplier with the lowest overall compliant price will be awarded the full Price score - full details provided within the ITT document.
- Price carries 40 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 4 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Works
- Notice status
- Closed
- 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
- 22 Sept 2025, 09:35 BST
- Last source update
- 9 Dec 2025, 09:26 GMT
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 7 Apr 2026
- Authority reference
WNC00000577- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-080895- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-059eb0Find a Tender
- How it runs
The Authority has selected to use the Competitive Flexible Procedure under the Procurement Act 2023 as a two stage procurement process:
Stage 1 ‘PSQ’ and;
Stage 2 ‘ITT’ ;
The Authority intends to invite only those Potential Suppliers to the ITT stage that have past Crematorium Works contract evidence only.
Potential Suppliers must have past contract experience of Crematorium Works as set out in the Tender specification and procurement documents to qualify to the ITT (Invitation to Tender) stage. Where a Potential Supplier’s contract evidence is considered not to be a relevant or similar Crematorium Works contract as per the criteria set out within the Tender documents, the Potential Supplier will be Rejected from this procurement process and will not be invited through to the ITT stage.
Any Potential Suppliers that do not have at least a minimum of one Crematorium Works contract example will be rejected from the procurement process and will not be invited through to the ITT (Invitation to Tender) stage. Up to three examples will be considered.
The Authority intends to invite all those Potential Suppliers to the ITT stage that have evidence of previous Crematorium Works contract examples only and passed all Pass/Fail elements of the PSQ and passed the financial checks will be invited through to the ITT stage.
Site Visits will only be offered to Potential Suppliers that are invited through to the ITT stage, taking place on 05/02/2026 and 06/02/2026.
How it was run
Official notice- Requests to participate (first stage)
- 21 Jan 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Submission deadline
- 21 Jan 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
in-tendhost.co.uk/wnc/aspx/Home ↗
As this procurement process is a Competitive Flexible Procedure, not all the documentation for the procurement has been developed and/or published at the PSQ stage. The Authority has provided sufficient information to enable Potential Suppliers to make an informed decision about whether an opportunity is suitable for them. The documentation provided is within the attachments area on the Authority portal (In-Tend).
Potential Suppliers are NOT required to and shall not respond to any document other than the electronic ‘Wantage Park Crematorium Procurement Specific Questionnaire_577’ PSQ (as part of the Conditions of Participation Assessment (“CoP”) and the ‘Financial Standing Assessment’ at the first stage. Any such response to another document shall be discarded by the Authority, and not re-visited during the tender stage should that Potential Supplier progress to issue of the ITT; it shall be for the Potential Supplier to respond to the ITT documentation at that time.
Potential Suppliers must read all of the tender documents provided at each stage.
Timeline
22 Sept 2025 → 18 May 2026 · 6 dates- Planning notice published22 Sept 2025, 09:35 BST
- Market engagement380 days ago17 Oct 2025, 23:59 BST
West Northamptonshire Council would like to at this stage prior to commencing the formal procurement, to seek expressions of interest (EOI) from the market to understand what the appetite is for undertaking this type of Works, establish if Potential Suppliers have previous Crematorium contract experience and warn the market of its intention to go out to Tender.
The publication of the Tender Notice and In-Tend project live date (PSQ Phase) is anticipated for Mid October 2025.
Potential Suppliers may wish to register on the Tender portal prior to the PSQ go live date, registration is required to access the Tender documentation.
Potential Suppliers must register on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) (which is free to use) and are to provide their central digital platform unique identifier code to the Authority as part of their PSQ response. The CDP is available at www.gov.uk/find-tender ↗
The ITT stage is subject to Planning Consent.
Please submit your EOI to [email protected] by 17/10/2025 and identify if you have previous experience of Crematorium Construction contracts. The Authority does not require any detailed information regarding contract experience at this stage.
Participation in this EOI will not impact your ability to engage with the future tender opportunity and is not a mandatory requirement for the Market Engagement stage.
Participation in the EOI does not guarantee that a procurement will follow, nor does it determine the final scope or structure of any potential procurement.
By EOI at this stage is not an automatic invite to tender. All Potential Suppliers will be required to complete the PSQ (Procurement Specific Questionnaire) on the WNC Tenders portal, In-Tend and pass the conditions of participation.
- Tender notice published328 days ago9 Dec 2025, 09:26 GMT
- Submission deadline285 days ago21 Jan 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Award decision expected by208 days ago7 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts168 days ago18 May 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
4 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 22 Sept 2025- Preliminary market engagement notice published22 Sept 2025, 09:35 BSTUK2
- Tender notice published9 Dec 2025, 09:26 GMTUK4
- Status changed to active9 Dec 2025, 09:26 GMT
- Procurement method changed9 Dec 2025, 09:26 GMT
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender