Highways Maintenance Market Engagement

Wokingham Borough Council is inviting suitably experienced and qualified suppliers to discuss future provision of services related to the maintenance and construction of highways and related assets in Wokingham, UK. The Council recognises that advances in technology and changes in customer and resident behaviour mean that different forms of service delivery may be representing better value. The Council is exploring model options for delivering its Highways and Transportation Services.

The Council currently has a contract for Highways Maintenance, which expires at the end of March 2026, and is looking to explore options for future provision of this service.

The main objectives of the market engagement will be to initiate a discussion with the market to generate ideas how to achieve the following:

• achieve efficiencies in a way that would not affect the quality of the service provision by using innovation and technology
• consider alternative models for provision of the maintenance, which is most likely to deliver savings and efficiencies
• achieve carbon neutrality by 2030
• discuss the possibility to manage the works under various arrangements with specialist contractors as well as provision under a single managed service arrangement
• simplify end to end processes as much as possible to give a good customer experience for staff and customers
• standardise processes, where possible, and maximise the use of new technology to provide a consistent, speedy and efficient customer experience through our new customer service
• continuously and progressively move towards more efficient customer journey, where this is practical and possible

The Council wishes to consult with organisations with relevant experience of the delivery of similar services. The purpose of the consultation is to seek the early views of market participants on potential service delivery models available to the Council that best align with the above listed objectives. The consultation will assist the Council to identify preferred option(s) and help the Council in the planning of future procurement procedures. The Council intends to commence the procurement procedure in 2024.

The Council will host a Market Engagement event at its offices in Wokingham on the morning of Wednesday 6th September 2023 and will offer slots for virtual meetings via MS Teams to organisations, wishing to engage in further discussions. The individual meetings with suppliers will take place during the week commencing 11th September 2023.

All relevant correspondence will be managed through the Council’s e-procurement solution – ProContract. Organisations, willing to participate, will need to be registered on ProContract as a supplier. The Council is not able to assist in this process and suppliers will need to liaise with Proactise, who manage all registrations of new suppliers.

Suitably experienced organisations are requested to register their interest in participating via the Messaging function of ProContract by 17:00 hours on 29/08/2023, providing the following information:

• Name of company
• Number of participants
• Will a slot for an individual meeting be required
• Email addresses for all attendees for individual meeting via MS Teams

The Council will issue an Information Pack and short questionnaire to those organisations that wish to attend and have registered interest. The attending organisations will then be invited to submit completed questionnaires following the event.

The Council intends to proceed with procurement in 2024, however, makes no guarantees that this PIN will be followed with a Contract Notice or Tender.