Scope
Reference
ESPH732
Description
Wealden District Council are seeking to appoint a suitable qualified and experienced main contractor for delivery of a new mixed-use development to create a replacement depot for its waste collection and street cleaning vehicle.
Development of the site known as Knights Farm West to provide a waste vehicle storage depot with administration building (Sui Generis) and solar farm which will provide power to the new facility, together with a new access roundabout on the A267, alongside associated landscaping, parking and servicing and other supporting infrastructure.
Full details are available in the document set.
Total value (estimated)
- £15,000,000 excluding VAT
- £18,000,000 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 30 June 2026 to 13 October 2027
- 1 year, 3 months, 14 days
Main procurement category
Works
CPV classifications
- 45213260 - Stores depot construction work
- 45213352 - Service depot construction work
- 45233120 - Road construction works
- 45233121 - Main road construction works
- 45233125 - Road junction construction work
Contract locations
- UKJ22 - East Sussex CC
Submission
Enquiry deadline
3 December 2025, 11:59pm
Submission type
Requests to participate
Deadline for requests to participate
19 December 2025, 2:00pm
Submission address and any special instructions
Submission must be made through the Council's e-tendering portal here:
Tenders may be submitted electronically
Yes
Languages that may be used for submission
English
Award decision date (estimated)
1 May 2026
Award criteria
| Name | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Simple description | Cost 40% Quality 60% |
Price |
Weighting description
Cost 40% Quality 60%
Other information
Conflicts assessment prepared/revised
Yes
Procedure
Procedure type
Competitive flexible procedure
Competitive flexible procedure description
Wealden District Council is conducting this Competitive Flexible Procedure over two stages:
Stage 1: Conditions of participation
Interested suppliers are invited to submit evidence of their suitability to deliver the contract. Suitability is defined within the Conditions of Participation set out within the documents and prospective suppliers must demonstrate their capabilities by providing by the closing date:
- A completed Project Specific Questionnaire (PSQ)
- 3-4 contract examples that demonstrate the required experience, as set out in the documents.
All compliant submissions received before the closing date will be assessed against the Conditions of Participation. These Conditions of Participation include questions in respect of the following items that will be assessed on a pass/fail basis:
- Economic and Financial Standing
- Insurance Provision
- Legal capability
- GDPR compliance
- Technical ability (contract examples)
- Sub-contractor management
- Health and safety
- Quality management
- Supply chain payments
- Payment terms for public sector contracts
- Payments for public and private sector contracts
- Carbon reduction plan
- Modern slavery statement
The contract examples provided to evidence technical capability will be assessed against the council's minimum experience criteria. These criteria are:
- One contract where you have undertaken significant works on major roads, preferably in East Sussex, including managing the provision of information for the s278 agreement.
- At least two (2) contracts must demonstrate prior experience of delivering depot / light industrial schemes of similar value to this.
- One contracts where you have been responsible for bringing in and connecting up the utilities provided by statutory suppliers.
Suppliers that demonstrate this minimum experience within their case studies will achieve a pass, and will then have their contract examples evaluated against the selection criteria. The council's selection criteria requirements are and their relative weighting out of 100 are as follows:
-Performance Outcomes (20)
-Social Value (10)
-Community and Stakeholder Engagement (20)
-Innovation and Sustainability (10)
-Quality Assurance and Compliance (20)
-Lessons Learned (20)
Suppliers will be ranked according to their scores for their submitted contract examples, with the highest scoring five suppliers to be shortlisted to receive the Invitation to Tender. The council is under no obligation to shortlist to the maximum of five suppliers, and reserves the right to select a reduced shortlist.
Stage 2: Invitation to Tender
Shortlisted suppliers will receive the invitation to tender and will be required to submit a qualitative and pricing response by the response deadline. The tenders will be evaluated on a Cost and Quality split of 40:60 respectively. The award criteria and sub-criteria is as follows:
- Method Statements (15)
- Programme (15)
- Resourcing (10)
- Communication (10)
- Environmental (5)
- Social Value (5)
- Cost (40)
Note the evaluation criteria will be fully defined upon the publication of the 2nd stage tender where there may be changes to the wording, scoring criteria, and sub-criteria.
All compliant submissions will be evaluated in accordance with the award criteria set out in this notice and in the procurement documents, with the most advantageous tender being the supplier who achieves the highest score.
After the receipt and evaluation of tenders the Council reserves the right to seek clarification from any bidder about the contents of their submission. As part of the evaluation process the Council reserves the right to hold clarification meetings with some or all of the shortlisted tenderers.
While the tender process, including Stage 1 and Stage 2 award criteria and weightings are set out in this notice and the published procurement documents, the council reserves the right to amend any element of the tender process, in accordance with Section 31 of the Procurement Act, 2023.
Before entering into a contract with the winning supplier, the council reserves the right to hold a pre-contract award meeting. The purpose of this meeting will be to ensure all parties clearly understand the expectations of the contract, before formally signing.
Contracting authority
Wealden District Council
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PXRN-7814-TGXG
Vicarage Lane
Hailsham
BN27 2AX
United Kingdom
Contact name: Adam Bennett
Email: esph@wealden.gov.uk
Region: UKJ22 - East Sussex CC
Organisation type: Public authority - sub-central government