Public Realm (Early Engagement)

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council (the "Council") wishes to engage the market regarding its future Public Realm contract, which will appoint one or more suitably qualified and experienced suppliers to provide works and services, for the maintenance and improvement of the publicly maintained highways, public realm and civil infrastructure within the region's road network, parks and housing estates, mainly to cover: • Highways & Public Realm improvements (including capital schemes) • Highways & Public Realm maintenance (including roads and footways) • Highways & Public Realm maintenance and improvements (structures) • Highways winter maintenance (carriageway only) • Street lighting maintenance and improvements • Highways condition surveys (footways and carriageways) • Grounds Maintenance, both soft and hard landscaping and surfaces • Professional services (technical design, policy, and consultancy work)

It will be open to bidders to apply for one lot or more than one lot. The division into lots will be decided following pre-market engagement. Grounds maintenance will be a separate lot. Professional services will be subject to a separate framework agreement.

The Council would like to invite suppliers to complete and return the attached Pre-Market Engagement (PME) questionnaire, and to participate in PME discussions to take place via MS Teams in January 2025, at times to be agreed.

If your organisation is interested in taking part in this PME exercise, please return the PME Questionnaire and confirm your interest to [email protected] by no later than the closing time and date of this notice.

The objective of the PME discussions is to get a better understanding of the following, to ensure the proposed route to market is appropriate and will deliver the best possible outcome to the residents of Hammersmith and Fulham. 1. Gather market intelligence on the type, location, and capabilities of suppliers in the market. 2. Seek feedback from suppliers to inform development of a procurement exercise that will be well received by the market, maximising participation. 3. Understand any questions suppliers may have regarding the required scope of works & services and the procurement process. 4. Seek information on industry best practice in relation to contracts for similar works and services. 5. Breakdown barriers to entry for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

It is intended that the outcome of the PME will be used to further inform the Council's procurement and contract model, but the Council is under no obligation to any potential Supplier and/or makes no guarantees to any party, resulting from feedback received to this Notice.

Additional information: This Early Engagement must not be considered as confirmation by London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council that any future procurement opportunity will be forthcoming as a result of any activity undertaken as part of the Council's Early Engagement activities. The Council does not bind itself to running a procurement or awarding any resultant contract, following the conclusion of this Early Engagement activity.

In accordance with the requirements of the Council's Contract Standing Orders, it is committed to conducting this Early Engagement activity in such a way that it does not prejudice any future potential bidder.

The Council will not adopt any technical advice in the preparation of any procurement activity from anyone where this may prejudice the equal treatment of all future potential bidders or distort competition.

Pre-procurement consultation with service users on what is being procured is encouraged and is considered good practice to ensure the Specification correctly addresses what is required by the Council.

Potential Suppliers must note that completion of the procurement documents will require access to the internet, word processing software (e.g., Microsoft Word); and/or spreadsheet software (e.g., Microsoft Excel).

To satisfy the requirements of the Contract Standing Orders, and the future Procurement Act 2023, under which this procurement will be run, the Council will use an eProcurement tool to manage this procurement process, where full details of this opportunity will be published.

Potential Suppliers interested in this opportunity may register on the Council's eProcurement portal in advance of the opportunity being published, by visiting https://www.capitalesourcing.com/web/login.shtml.