Redcar selects David Webster group for £50m streetlight PFI

A preferred bidder has finally steppedcome into the limelight for a £50m streeltlighting deal in the Nnorth E-east –- a year later than the client originally intended.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has chosennow shone the spotlight on a group featuring David Webster, ETDE (part of French contractor Bouy- gues’ stable) plus the Mill Group.

This means the council has pulled the plug on a rival group that also made the best and final offer stage –- the Tay Valley Consortium, which includesing Southern and Scottish Electric Contracting and Scottish & Southern Energy.

The lights went out earlier this year for Vinci Investments, a third contestant.

The council originally hoped to have its preferred bidder on board by last Novembert, but then the deal became the first PFI streetlightingstreelighting proeject to be subjected to the Second Stage Treasury Review process.

This process basically entails an audit of the scheme, covering issues such as value for money, energy prices and making sure clients go through the correct procurement procedures.

An industry insider said: “The council throught the process would be over in a matter of weeks –- after all it’s pretty basic stuff.

“But the government has been sitting on this since the erarly part of this year.

Even if you allow for the fact that this is the first PFI streetlightingstreelighting scheme to undergo this process, it’s a pretty dismal performance.”

Work on the Redcar deal is now expected to start on site early next year.

The project involves replacing 15,000 streetlights –- about 85% of the council’s stock –- and installing 3,450 new lighting columns in the first five years of the deal.

[Contract Journal, 25 October 2006, p14]