Rutland County Council is seeking to facilitate the provision of Next Generation Broadband and end user services across the County of Rutland. The Council is acting on behalf of the emerging Digital Rutland Public / Private Sector Partnership, which ...
Contract award notice
Services
Section I: Contracting authority
Rutland County Council
Council Offices, Catmose
For the attention of: Robert Rowan
LE15 6HP Oakham
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:
Internet address(es):
General address of the contracting authority: www.rutland.gov.uk
Section II: Object of the contract
Service category No 5: Telecommunications services
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance: The County of Rutland.
NUTS code UKF22
Rutland consists of small town, village and rural communities in an area just 16 miles by 16, situated between major conurbations including Nottingham, Leicester, Peterborough and Northampton.
Broadband provision across the county is in need of being substantially improved. The Council seeks a partner or partners who can initially work with the Council in the delivery of a business plan and the identification of funding implications in order to bring about this improvement. Rutland County Council cannot provide the gap funding thought to be necessary to facilitate this work, but can seek to broker a solution with the partner(s) in applying for and potentially securing funding in the form of grants where the partner(s) may not be able to fund all the investment themselves.
In the event that the funding issues can be resolved the final grant contract will be to provide Next Generation Broadband infrastructure to the inhabitants of the County of Rutland. The grant contract will not be to provide services to the contracting authority.
The intention is to deploy technology neutral Next Generation Broadband infrastructure so as to maximise broadband reach in the county, addressing the issues of "white spots” and areas that market providers will not penetrate on a commercial basis in the near future. The ambition is to:
- Provide Next Generation Broadband for a minimum of 99 % of Rutland County by 2013, offering higher speeds and wider bandwidths as further described in the contract documentation;
- Operation of open provider model leading to a range of communication providers in the market place for both wholesale and retail markets;
- Increased demand and customer choice in communication providers leading to competition for ISP provision and cheaper applications and services.
The preferred investor will own the network and be responsible for operating the network.
It is expected that the final grant contract will set out the terms upon which the investor will be able to claim any grants which are claimed and made available based on the cost of the investment. The final grant contract will be based on open book accounting principles.
64200000, 66122000, 72250000, 72253100, 72222300, 32412000, 32412100, 32413000, 32417000, 32424000, 32427000, 32428000, 32430000, 32500000, 32510000, 32520000, 32523000, 32524000, 32570000, 32571000, 32572000
Section IV: Procedure
1. Technology. Weighting 20
2. End user applications. Weighting 15
3. Coverage. Weighting 25
4. Implementation and operations. Weighting 5
5. Tariff and affordability. Weighting 15
6. Project financing. Weighting 20
Contract notice
Notice number in the OJEU: 2011/S 94-154541 of 17.5.2011
Other previous publications
Notice number in the OJEU: 2012/S 217-357061 of 10.11.2012
Notice number in the OJEU: 2012/S 193-316644 of 6.10.2012
Section V: Award of contract
BT Group
BT Centre, 81 Newgate Street
EC1A 7AJ London
UNITED KINGDOM
Value: 12 000 000 GBP
Excluding VAT
Section VI: Complementary information
Reference to project(s) and/or programme(s): Rutland County Council has been awarded 820,000 GBP from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) in order to deliver the provision of Next Generation Broadband and end user services in the County of Rutland. It is likely that further funds from BDUK may be sought / provided.
There is potential that the project may apply to the Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF) for additional funding which will support the delivery of said services in the hard to reach areas of the County. It is likely that any additional funding from the RCBF will not exceed 1,000,000 GBP for this aspect of the project.
There is also a potential that further funding may be sought from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Should this funding stream be investigated, it is anticipated that the total funding will not exceed 1,000,000 GBP.
Rutland County Council
Council Offices, Catmose
LE15 6HP Oakham
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 1572722577
State aid approval has subsequently been granted and the council has awarded the contract unconditionally.
Any appeal or challenge against the award decision must be communicated to the address stated in section I.1 above. If an appeal or challenge to award the contract has not been successfully resolved the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (As Amended) provide for aggrieved parties to take action in the High Court. Any such action must be brought promptly (generally within 3 months, although this time period may be reduced to 30 days in certain circumstances). Where a legal challenge is launched the Contracting Authority would be obliged to suspend the making of a contract. Where a legal challenge is made after the contract has been entered into then that contract could be declared ineffective and / or shortened and / or a fine imposed by the Court.