Barking and Dagenham Policies for Engaging with religious groups and planning for religious meeting places

Barking and Dagenham is London’s growth opportunity. We are progressing with our emerging local plan (2015 to 2030); which will unlock growth for over 35,000 homes and 10,000 jobs. This was endorsed by an independent Growth Commission.

This brief looks at a specific (but important) component of social infrastructure; religious meeting places. The borough does not have a policy on how to engage with local religious groups and this is the first purpose of this commission. To inform this (and later parts of the brief) the Council also requires an audit of existing religious facilities and religious groups (across the borough) , an understanding of future demand for religious facilities and how this is best met. The final part of this commission is to make recommendations for the Council’s Local Plan policy on religious meeting places . Please see the attached brief for more details.

Scope of services required The commissioning team envision that this study will have five main parts: Part 1: A policy for engaging with local religious groups Part 2: A site assessment for religious meeting places and the creation of a religious meeting places database Part 3: Assessment of existing and future demand/ need for religious meeting places Part 4: Testing if supply could be met in the large regeneration sites such as Thames Road and if multi faith centres provide a potential opportunity to reduce space requirements Part 5: Recommend Local Plan policy on Religious Meeting Places

The Council has expressed that the value of the contract is likely to be no less than £15,000 given the scope of services required (see brief for more details).

Tender Submission Consultant teams should provide the following number of tender submissions in the formats specified: Two bound copies One electronic copy on CD-Rom

Tender submissions must be returned by 5pm Tuesday 22 November 2016 Tender submissions should be addressed to:

FAO: Peter Wiltshire London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Room 111 Town Hall 1 Town Square Barking IG11 7LU

Queries relating to the tender process should be emailed no later than 5pm Tuesday 15 November 2016 to: Jamie Simpson [email protected] 020 8227 5816