Provision of Senior Projects Officer (Major Sites Planning Consultancy Services)

North Hertfordshire District Council intends to make a direct award in accordance with Contract Procurement Rules 20.6(e) and Schedule 5, paragraph 6 of the Procurement Act 2023.

Due to an absence of competition for objective technical reasons, the services required can only be effectively provided by the incumbent supplier. The consultant supplied by Oyster Partnership Ltd has been embedded in the Baldock and East of Luton strategic planning projects for over 12 months and possesses detailed, project-specific technical knowledge that cannot be replicated without significant duplication of work, delay, and material risk to delivery.

The services relate to live development management applications, Environmental Impact Assessment scoping opinions, Design Review Panels, and Planning Performance Agreements associated with strategic housing allocations in the adopted North Hertfordshire Local Plan. Replacing the supplier at this stage would result in unacceptable operational disruption, increased risk of non-determination and appeal, loss of applicant confidence and funding, and harm to the Council's ability to discharge its statutory planning functions.

A review of alternative suppliers has confirmed that no reasonable or technically equivalent alternative is available without disproportionate duplication of previous work and consequential operational risk. Competition is therefore absent for objective technical reasons within the meaning of Schedule 5, paragraph 6.

Any change of supplier would undermine continuity of the existing services and embedded technical knowledge and would create disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and delivery, further evidencing the absence of reasonable alternatives.