Official UK procurement notice
Demand Responsive Transport Service - Tees Flex Bus Service
Authority: Tees Valley Combined Authority (Local council)·Consortium: 2 public authorities
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionTees Valley Combined Authority (the 'Contracting Authority'), part of the Tees Valley Combined Authority Group, have awarded a contract for the provision of Demand Responsive Transport Service - Tees Flex Bus Service. The contract start date was 25th August 2025 however there has been a delay with signing due to resource. The contract was signed on 15th September 2025.
Award of De Minimis bus transport subsidy contract in line with the Transport Act and Service Subsidy Agreements (Tendering) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2004.
Local authorities or Passenger Transport Authorities/Executives with forecast expenditure on bus service subsidies in any one year of £600,000 or more will be able to spend up to 25% of this on de minimis contracts; within this 25% there is no limit on the expenditure in any one year that may be incurred on an individual de minimis contract or the amount of de minimis contract expenditure in any year with any single operator.
CPV: Public road transport services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Awarded
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 17 Apr 2025, 13:22 BST
- Last source update
- 7 Apr 2026, 09:52 BST
- Authority reference
TVCA-PROC-0578- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-031282- Latest notice
- Contract termination notice (UK11)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0504d4Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Additional Repeat Extension Partial Replacement
- Published justification
Award of De Minimis bus transport subsidy contract in line with the Transport Act and Service Subsidy Agreements (Tendering) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2004.
Local authorities or Passenger Transport Authorities/Executives with forecast expenditure on bus service subsidies in any one year of £600,000 or more will be able to spend up to 25% of this on de minimis contracts; within this 25% there is no limit on the expenditure in any one year that may be incurred on an individual de minimis contract or the amount of de minimis contract expenditure in any year with any single operator.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
17 Apr 2025 → 7 Apr 2026 · 5 dates- Planning notice published17 Apr 2025, 13:22 BST
- Market engagement12 May 2025, 23:59 BST
Tees Flex is an on-demand bus service which was introduced to the TVCA local area in early 2020. The service is currently contracted until August 2025, and we are therefore engaging with the local market to understand operator capacity and interest moving forward.
Covering various locations across the Tees Valley.
Responses to this pre-tender market engagement opportunity can be submitted through Proactis at:
procontract.due-north.com/Advert ↗
Queries regarding this process and/or the content of this PTME should be submitted as clarification requests via the portal, no communication will be accepted via other means.
- Standstill ends10 Jul 2025, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts1 Sept 2025, 00:00 BST
- Latest notice published203 days ago7 Apr 2026, 09:52 BST
Notice history
10 events · 6 releases on Find a Tender · since 17 Apr 2025- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Apr 2025, 13:22 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Apr 2025, 13:25 BSTUK2
- Transparency notice published1 Jul 2025, 11:07 BSTUK5
- Status changed to complete1 Jul 2025, 11:07 BST
- Procurement method changed1 Jul 2025, 11:07 BST
- Buyer details updated1 Jul 2025, 11:07 BST
- Contract award notice published1 Jul 2025, 11:23 BSTUK6
- Contract signature expected1 Aug 2025, 23:59 BSTscheduled
- Contract details notice published25 Sept 2025, 14:23 BSTUK7
- Contract termination notice published7 Apr 2026, 09:52 BSTUK11
Published amendments (1)
Updated link to opportunity within Proactis.
Routine re-releases (6)
- 2025-07: 1 release · 1 Jul 2025
- 2025-04: 2 releases · 17 Apr 2025, 17 Apr 2025
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLEVELAND TRANSIT LTD25 Aug 2025 – 28 Mar 2026 | £897,000 | 1 Jul 2025 | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 1 · CLEVELAND TRANSIT LTD
- Signed
- 25 Aug 2025
- Value
- £897,000
- Period
- 25 Aug 2025 – 28 Mar 2026
- Status
- terminated
- Final value
- £897,000
- Termination
- contractCompleted
No agreed KPIs: Contract value is below £5 million including VAT
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
2 public bodies on the noticeBidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- CLEVELAND TRANSIT LTD.Awarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (6)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract termination notice Contract termination notice on Find a Tender
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender