UK-Stafford: weather-forecasting services

Request For Proposals

Country:

United Kingdom

City/Locality:

STAFFORD

Notice/Contract Number:

eu:343604-2009

Publication Date:

Dec 12, 2009

Deadline:

Jan 13, 2010

Buyer:

STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Original Language:

English

Address:

STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
STAFFORD, Staffordshire CC
United Kingdom

Web Site:

www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement

view in:

Notice Type: 2220 - Contract notice
Regulation of Procurement: European Communities, with participation by GPA countries
EU Official Journal Publication: 240/2009, #343604-2009
Contract Nature: Service contract
Procedure Type: Restricted procedure
Type of Bid Required: Global tender
Awarding Criteria: The most economic tender

view in:

CONTRACT NOTICE
Services
SECTION I: CONTRACTING AUTHORITY
I.1) NAME, ADDRESSES AND CONTACT POINT(S): Staffordshire County Council,
Staffordshire Procurement, Wedgwood Building, Tipping Street, Attn: Paul J
Timmins, UK-Stafford ST16 2DH. Tel. +44 1785854646. E-mail:
paul.timmins@staffordshire.gov.uk. Fax +44 1785854660.
Internet address(es):
General address of the contracting authority:
www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement.
Further information can be obtained at: URL: This is an electronic tender.
All requests for information to be sent through the electronic tendering
portal and messaging facility on the Proactis electronic tendering system.
Follow the instructions and follow the link to the PROACTIS E-Tendering.
Initially, go to http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement/
etendering/. Refer also to details in section VI.3 Additional Information.
Specifications and additional documents (including documents for
competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained at:
URL: This is an electronic tender. All requests for information to be sent
through the electronic tendering portal and messaging facility on the
Proactis electronic tendering system. Follow the instructions and follow
the link to the PROACTIS E-Tendering. Initially, go to
http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement/etendering/. Refer
also to details in section VI.3 Additional Information.
Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: URL: This is an
electronic tender. All requests for information to be sent through the
electronic tendering portal and messaging facility on the Proactis
electronic tendering system. Follow the instructions and follow the link
to the PROACTIS E-Tendering. Initially, go to
http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement/etendering/. Refer
also to details in section VI.3 Additional Information.
I.2) TYPE OF THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND MAIN ACTIVITY OR ACTIVITIES:
Regional or local authority.
General public services.
The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting
authorities: no.
SECTION II: OBJECT OF THE CONTRACT
II.1) DESCRIPTION
II.1.1) Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:
Road Weather Information System - Weather Station Operation, Maintenance
Services, Bureau Service and Forecasting.
II.1.2) Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of
performance: Services.
Service category: No 12.
Main place of performance: Staffordshire.
NUTS code: UKG24.
II.1.3) The notice involves: The establishment of a framework agreement.
II.1.4) Information on framework agreement: Framework agreement with a
single operator.
Duration of the framework agreement: Duration in months: 36 + (1 x 12
month options).
Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the
framework agreement:
Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 400 000 and 550 000 GBP.
Frequency and value of the contracts to be awarded: Refer to II.2.1.
II.1.5) Short description of the contract or purchase(s): Staffordshire
County Council (SCC) requires a partner organisation (Service Provider) to
help manage and provide a Winter Service in line with its Code of Practice
for Winter Maintenance. The specification for the service will require for
the provision of a Road Weather Forecast and Information Service for
Staffordshire County Council.
The Service will comprise of the following main components: -.
1. SCC operates an Ice Prediction System whereby road weather information
sensors (outstations and non-invasive outstations) are installed at a
number of locations on the road network throughout the County of
Staffordshire. These outstations provide actual information on road
conditions and this information is available for use in compilation of
forecasts. The Service Provider will be expected to mange this information
and present in a format acceptable to the SCC for use by its duty
officers.
2. Maintenance and operation of the outstations will form part of the
contract including inspection, calibration, and repair of the equipment
and maintenance of ice prediction software.
3. The majority of the network has been previously thermal mapped and this
will be available for use by the successful provider. Maintenance of the
thermal maps may form part of the contract.
4. The operation of a forecast service that utilises the data from the
Outstations including the management of the data from each station to
enable by remote monitoring the road surface and atmospheric conditions
for the detection and prediction of ice formation and other adverse
weather conditions.
5. Provision of daily weather forecast at the specified times between 01
October and 30 April each year of the agreement.
6. A route optimisation service if required.
7. 24 Hour telephone consultancy service.
8. Annual training of winter decision makers.
9. Data handling and storage.
The successful provider will also be expected to engage with SCC in
developing and improving the delivery of the winter service during the
term of the contract.
Note that the participation and process for this tender will be via the
electronic tendering portal located at
http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement/etendering/. Please
ensure you refer to section VI.3 of this notice.
II.1.6) Common procurement vocabulary (CPV): 71351600, 45233210,
34927100, 50230000.
II.1.7) Contract covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA):
Yes.
II.1.8) Division into lots: No.
II.1.9) Variants will be accepted: No.
II.2) QUANTITY OR SCOPE OF THE CONTRACT
II.2.1) Total quantity or scope: This notice is for a framework agreement
and is not in itself a contract. There is no guarantee of volumes of
business under this agreement.
IMPORTANT - All contract value ranges shown in this Notice reflect
potential spend across the potential entirety of the framework (4 years)
should all period options be taken.
The lower limit includes for envidaged regular winter maintenance,
forecasting, training and revision work. The upper limit is the uptake of
all possible options including thermal mapping and salt route optimisation
(SRO).
For options regarding time periods refer to II.2.2.
Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 400 000 and 550 000 GBP.
II.2.2) Options: Yes.
Description of these options: The initial period is 1.5.2010 to 30.4.2013
(with 1 x 12 month option to extend - therefore the option may be taken up
for the period 1.1.2013 to 30.4.2014). The options will be exercised at
the discretion of the County Council.
II.3) DURATION OF THE CONTRACT OR TIME-LIMIT FOR COMPLETION: Starting:
1.5.2010. Completion: 30.4.2013.
SECTION III: LEGAL, ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION
III.1) CONDITIONS RELATING TO THE CONTRACT
III.1.2) Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or
reference to the relevant provisions regulating them: Payments may be made
following acceptance by the banking agents of the County Council.
III.1.3) Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to
whom the contract is to be awarded: No special legal form is required by
the grouping of providers but each provider will be required to become
jointly or severally responsible for the contract before acceptance.
III.1.4) Other particular conditions to which the performance of the
contract is subject: Yes.
Any tender may be rejected from a company/organisation who interalia:
(a) is bankrupt or is being wound up, where his affairs are being
administered by the court, where he has entered into an arrangement with
creditors, where he has suspended business activities or is in any
analogous situation arising from a similar procedure under national laws
and regulations;
(b) is the subject of proceedings for a declaration of bankruptcy, for an
order for compulsory winding up or administration by the court or of an
arrangement with creditors or of any other similar proceedings under
national laws and regulations;
(c) has been convicted by a judgment which has the force of res judicata
in accordance with the legal provisions of the country of any offence
concerning his professional conduct;
(d) has been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means
which the contracting authorities can demonstrate;
(e) has not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social
security contributions in accordance with the legal provisions of the
country in which he is established or with those of the country of the
contracting authority;
(f) has not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of taxes in
accordance with the legal provisions of the country in which he is
established or with those of the country of the contracting authority;
(g) is guilty of serious misrepresentation in supplying the information
required under this Section or has not supplied such information;
(h) has been the subject of a conviction for participation in a criminal
organisation, as defined in Article 2(1) of Council Joint Action
98/733/JHA;
(i) has been the subject of a conviction for corruption, as defined in
Article 3 of the Council Act of 26.5.1997 and Article 3(1) of Council
Joint Action 98/742/JHA respectively;
(j) has been the subject of a conviction for fraud within the meaning of
Article 1 of the Convention relating to the protection of the financial
interests of the European Communities;
(k) has been the subject of a conviction for money laundering, as defined
in Article 1 of Council Directive 91/308/EEC of 10.6.1991 on prevention of
the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering.
Please refer to Regulation no 23 of the Public Procurement Regulations
2006 (SI No 5) for additional rejection criteria (see link).
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20060005.htm.
III.2) CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION
III.2.2) Economic and financial capacity: Information and formalities
necessary for evaluating if requirements are met: (1) Potential previous
years trading accounts.
(2) Proof of valid insurance certificates.
See PQQ documentation for further details.
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required: (1) Financial checks will
be undertaken for economic operators using the Councils current financial
assessors n2check (www.n2check.com). Economic operators will be assessed
according to the level of risk stipulated by n2check. Any Economic
Operator being given an above average (or lower) risk rating may be
disqualified.
(2) The organisation should hold as a minimum the following insurance
levels or be able to provide with their response, a written statement
advising that should they be awarded the contract they will have the
required levels of insurance in place within 4 weeks of contract award: -
Public Liability 5 000 000 GBP.
Employers Liability 10 000 000 GBP.
Failure to achieve or agree the above may lead to disqualification.
III.2.3) Technical capacity: Information and formalities necessary for
evaluating if requirements are met:
(1) Health and Safety policy document.
(2) Written evidence of ability to conform to site-attendance times.
(3) Declared reference sites.
(4) Compliance with the ICT Third Party Information Security
questionnaire.
See PQQ documentation for further details.
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required:
The County Council absolutely require the following: -.
(1) Compliance with Regulation 23 of the Public Contracts Regualtions 2006
(see III.1.4).
(2) Compliant written Health & Safety policy where applicable.
(3) Capacity to attend work sites in within maximum timescales (within 24
hours).
(9) Compliant experience / references.
The County Council may also fail applications based on: -.
Accrual of unacceptable number of health and safety improvement notices
and/or prohibition convictions.
The above pass/fail criteria (see PQQ documentation for further details)
is also in addition to scored criteria presented in the PQQ Questionnaire
documents.
III.2.4) Reserved contracts: No.
III.3) CONDITIONS SPECIFIC TO SERVICES CONTRACTS
III.3.1) Execution of the service is reserved to a particular profession:
No.
III.3.2) Legal entities should indicate the names and professional
qualifications of the staff responsible for the execution of the service:
No.
SECTION IV: PROCEDURE
IV.1) TYPE OF PROCEDURE
IV.1.1) Type of procedure: Restricted.
IV.1.2) Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to
tender or to participate: Envisaged number of operators 5
Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates:
Resources (20 %); Training (25 %); Evidence of site response times (30 %);
References / experience (25 %).
IV.1.3) Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or
dialogue: Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of
solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated no.
IV.2) AWARD CRITERIA
IV.2.1) Award criteria: The most economically advantageous tender in
terms of the criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to
tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document.
IV.2.2) An electronic auction will be used: No.
IV.3) ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
IV.3.1) File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:
PC228.
IV.3.2) Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract: No.
IV.3.3) Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents
or descriptive document: Payable documents: no.
IV.3.4) Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate:
13.1.2010 - 12:00.
IV.3.6) Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be
drawn up: English.
SECTION VI: COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
VI.1) THIS IS A RECURRENT PROCUREMENT: Yes.
Estimated timing for further notices to be published: See II.2.2 for
possible options.
VI.2) CONTRACT RELATED TO A PROJECT AND/OR PROGRAMME FINANCED BY EU
FUNDS: No.
VI.3) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: For further details of forthcoming
tenders/contracts please visit http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/
procurement/.
If and when this requirement is offered to tender, this may be done in
whole or in part via electronic means using the Internet, and may also be
through the medium of an electronic reverse auction (eAuction).
This is an electronic tender. All requests for information to be sent
through the electronic tendering portal and messaging facility on the
Proactis electronic tendering system. How to register: -.
1. Go to http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement/etendering/.
Follow the instructions and then follow the link to on PROACTIS
E-Tendering (http://www.staffordshire.alito.co.uk).
2: On the main page click suppliers then register links.
3: Follow the company profile registration process completing the 6 areas
to complete your supplier profile.
4: Once complete click the finish button to complete your registration,
you will receive a confirmation e-mail which will contain an
authentication link.
5: Once authenticated you can then login into Proactis.
6: Begin by clicking the Bulletin Board link to search for tenders.
7: Enter your search keyword and check the search criteria are correct for
your chosen search, once complete click SEARCH.
8: To register your interest against an active tender click on the
contract title (highlighted in blue).
9: Click the REGISTER button and then continue.
10: The tender will now be in the my tenders profile area on the main
menu.
11: Continue with management of the tender.
12: Please ensure the tender submission deadline is noted
If you require urgent assistance regarding the initial usage of the
eTendering package please contact the Contracting Authority
point-of-contact in Section I.1 of this notice. On failure to reach this
contact, please immediately email the nature of the difficulty to
sp@staffordshire.gov.uk.
VI.4) PROCEDURES FOR APPEAL
VI.4.1) Body responsible for appeal procedures: As I.1 and VI.4.2.
Body responsible for mediation procedures:
VI.4.2) Lodging of appeals: Precise information on deadline(s) for
lodging appeals: This authority will incorporate a minimum ten (10)
calendar day standstill period at the point when information on the award
of the contract is communicated to tenderers. This period allows
unsuccessful tenderers to seek further debriefing from the contracting
authority before the contract is entered into. Applicants have two (2)
working days from the notification of the award decision to request
additional debriefing. Such information has to be provided a minimum of
three (3) working days before the expiry of the standstill period. Such
additional information should be requested from (please refer to the named
person in the address in part I.1).
If an appeal regarding the award of a contract is not successfully
resolved the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No 5) provide for
aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by a breach
of the rules to take action in the High Court (England, Wales and Northern
Ireland). Any such action must be brought promptly (generally within three
(3) months). Where a contract has not been entered into the Court may
order the setting aside of the award decision or order the authority to
amend any document and may award damages. If the contract has been entered
into the Court may only award damages. The purpose of the standstill
period referred to above is to allow parties to apply to the Courts to set
aside the award decision before the contract is entered into.
VI.4.3) Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may
be obtained: As I.1 and VI.4.2.
VI.5) DATE OF DISPATCH OF THIS NOTICE: 9.12.2009.

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UK-Stafford: weather-forecasting services

Request For Proposals

General Information

Contact Information

Goods, Works and Services

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