Official UK procurement notice
ANDBC Preliminary Market Engagement for City/Town Centre Market Provision
Authority: Ards and North Down Borough Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionArds and North Down Borough Council is preparing to undertake a transparent and informed preliminary market engagement exercise to seek feedback and insight from experienced suppliers to help shape the future of our market provision in Newtownards and Bangor. This market engagement will take the form of a supplier questionnaire. Responses will help the Council gain a clearer understanding of the capability, innovation and delivery models available in the marketplace and will inform the development of future procurement documentation. The information provided in the completed questionnaire will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise. Please note that participation or non-participation in this preliminary market engagement exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any potential procurement process, nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any forthcoming procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the pre-market engagement (PME) questionnaire. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home ↗ (Resource ID 6507980). The questionnaire must be completed and returned via the Messaging function of the CfT or by email to procurement@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk in accordance with the instructions detailed in the PME Questionnaire document. There are no formal tender documents to be completed other than the questionnaire.
CPV: Management-related services · Provision of services to the community · Retail trade services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Ards and North Down Borough Council buys Management-related services (CPV 7942), and who usually turns up
Ards and North Down 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: Management-related services (CPV 7942) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 87 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
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.
1 bid25% / 17%
2–350% / 33%
4–613% / 33%
7+13% / 17%
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.
Below estimate43% / 18%
Within ±2%43% / 68%
Above estimate14% / 14%
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.
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 7942No real estimate
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 206 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid23%
2–328%
4–628%
7+21%
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.
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.
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.
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
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- 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
- 21 May 2026, 14:50 BST
- Last source update
- 21 May 2026, 14:50 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-047190- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069f6eFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
21 May 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published161 days ago21 May 2026, 14:50 BST
- Market engagement132 days ago18 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
Ards and North Down Borough Council is preparing to undertake a transparent and informed preliminary market engagement exercise to seek feedback and insight from experienced suppliers to help shape the future of our market provision in Newtownards and Bangor. This market engagement will take the form of a supplier questionnaire. Responses will help the Council gain a clearer understanding of the capability, innovation and delivery models available in the marketplace and will inform the development of future procurement documentation. The information provided in the completed questionnaire will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise. Please note that participation or non-participation in this preliminary market engagement exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any potential procurement process, nor is it intended that any information supplied shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any forthcoming procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the pre-market engagement (PME) questionnaire. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from etendersni.gov.uk/epps/home ↗ (Resource ID 6507980). The questionnaire must be completed and returned via the Messaging function of the CfT or by email to procurement@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk in accordance with the instructions detailed in the PME Questionnaire document. There are no formal tender documents to be completed other than the questionnaire.
- Today29 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 153 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published21 May 2026, 14:50 BSTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender