Official UK procurement notice
Earnse Hub - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Authority: Westmorland and Furness Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThis is NOT a tender opportunity at this stage.
The Earnse Hub represents a fantastic opportunity to shape a vibrant, new, coastal community space providing a new chapter for communities and partners alike who share a passion for nature, the outdoors, and building strong community connections. Set within a newly landscaped park this picturesque area of Cumbria brings together play areas, growing spaces, and a network of pathways that weave around the site; the hub offers an exceptional opportunity for an operator who is ready to capitalise on the growing demand for nature-based wellbeing and the diverse income streams and social value this brings.
Combining a café with outdoor terrace space, a fully serviced campsite, and set within parkland with access to the beach, the hub is designed to pull in a strong, year round footfall and cater to a range of audiences. This provides a unique platform for an operator who is ready to enable the site to realise its full potential as place where people can come together to explore, create, learn, eat, play, and stay.
The Earnse Hub is a shared site; a small section of the site will home a beach school which is to be constructed and operated by Natural England. This site is positioning itself to attract families, residents, visitors and education partners, creating a powerful platform for commercial growth with an abundance of community impact.
Westmorland and Furness Council is seeking to engage with the market to explore options for the new Earnse Hub development and to source a partner who will be responsible for delivering a collective vision for the site, alongside managing one or more aspects. Funded by the UK Governments Town Deal programme in partnership with Westmorland and Furness Council and the Barrow Town Deal.
The Earnse Hub is situated on Walney Island in Barrow in Furness and the opportunity consists of one or more of the following:
- a café/community space providing internal seating for 40 covers with further external seating available on the wrap around terrace
- a segregated campsite including 4 camping pods, 4 hard standing pitches catering for small campervans, and additional grass pitches
- a camping support building including shower facilities, toilets and a kitchen area
- parkland and community growing spaces
The hub has been designed to enable access to a variety of facilities that promote community-focused activities. The ethos of the hub is to foster social interaction, promote health and wellbeing, and provide access to a range of volunteering opportunities and aid skill development.
Currently we expect the concession opportunity offered as a minimum 5 years in duration with options to renew; the Heads of Terms will be available in the tender documents which we anticipate will be published April/May 2026.
We are seeking an operator to commence the lease from Summer 2026, opening to the public late Summer/ early Autumn 2026.
Engagement process description:
As part of this exciting opportunity, we are inviting interested organisations to join an engagement event in person in Barrow. An option to join the event via teams will also be available. The event will take place on Monday 16th March; we will confirm the time and location upon receipt of your expression of interest to attend. The event will be followed by an optional site visit.
Organisations wishing to attend must register their interest prior to attending by no later than 14.00pm on Friday 13th of March.
If you are interested in attending this session, please email kelly.alty@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
The purpose of the session is to engage with the market and gather general feedback on the opportunity, this may include the proposed lease terms and indicative timelines.
This preliminary market engagement is intended to help us better understand market interest and any considerations ahead of the formal tender process.
This information notice does not commit Westmorland and Furness Council to any future procurement or any subsequent decisions based on the output of the market testing exercise.
CPV: Hotel, restaurant and 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 Westmorland and Furness Council buys Hotel, restaurant and retail trade services (CPV 55), and who usually turns up
Westmorland and Furness 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: Hotel, restaurant and retail trade services (CPV 55) →
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. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England.
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 61 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.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
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 bid18% / 30%
2–345% / 26%
4–628% / 30%
7+9% / 14%
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% / 35%
Within ±2%33% / 35%
Above estimate24% / 31%
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 55Estimate not published
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 55. The comparison uses that group.
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 50 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid30%
2–326%
4–630%
7+14%
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
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Concession
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 2 Mar 2026, 15:29 GMT
- Last source update
- 2 Mar 2026, 15:29 GMT
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-018575- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-065ff8Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
2 Mar 2026 → 1 Aug 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published240 days ago2 Mar 2026, 15:29 GMT
- Market engagement225 days ago16 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT
This is NOT a tender opportunity at this stage.
As part of this exciting opportunity, we are inviting interested organisations to join an engagement event in person in Barrow. An option to join the event via teams will also be available. The event will take place on Monday 16th March; we will confirm the time and location upon receipt of your expression of interest to attend. The event will be followed by an optional site visit.
Organisations wishing to attend must register their interest prior to attending by no later than 14.00pm on Friday 13th of March.
If you are interested in attending this session, please email kelly.alty@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
The purpose of the session is to engage with the market and gather general feedback on the opportunity, this may include the proposed lease terms and indicative timelines.
This preliminary market engagement is intended to help us better understand market interest and any considerations ahead of the formal tender process.
This information notice does not commit Westmorland and Furness Council to any future procurement or any subsequent decisions based on the output of the market testing exercise.
- Contract starts88 days ago1 Aug 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published2 Mar 2026, 15:29 GMTUK2
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