Notts council picks trio for £120m partnership

Nottinghamshire County Council has joined forces with three East Midlands construction companies in a deal designed to save the cost and time involved in repeat bidding for individual projects. The three outfits earmarked to carry out £120m- worth of new build and refurb work under a four-year framework deal are Interserve, Derby-based GF Tomlinson and local firm Marriott Construction, part of the Kier group.

The projects will involve tasks on various public buildings including schools, libraries, offices and care homes, with each package of work worth more than £350,000. A council source said: “There will be no mini-tender process –- particular jobs will be given to particular contractors.”

According to Roger Latham, the council’s chief executive: “This partnership will allow us to build greater relationships with the contractors involved, achieve greater efficiencies and ensure value for money.” The three firms may be asked to provide design and build services from time to time during the four-year agreement, but that will not form a major part of the deal.

The scheme is similar to a deal rolled out earlier this year by Scape System Build –- a consortium owned by six councils, including Nottinghamshire.

That project involved Willmott Dixon directly tackling work from public sector clients , also over four years and under a system that alsoagain claimed to save both the clients and the contractor a great deal of time and money.

[Contract Journal, 4 October 2006, p11]