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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

Directive 2004/18/EC

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

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

I.2)Type of the contracting authority
Regional or local authority
I.3)Main activity
General public services
I.4)Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities
The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: no

Section II: Object of the contract

II.1)Description
II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract
Digital Rutland: co-funding and provision of Next Generation Broadband and end user services in the County of Rutland
II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance
Services
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

II.1.3)Information about a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS)
II.1.4)Short description of the contract or purchase(s)
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 is intended as a vehicle to maximise savings by aggregating public sector and commercial demand through a commitment to use the proposed network. Key businesses in the county are partnering the Council in this initiative.
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.
II.1.5)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

64200000, 66122000, 72250000, 72253100, 72222300, 32412000, 32412100, 32413000, 32417000, 32424000, 32427000, 32428000, 32430000, 32500000, 32510000, 32520000, 32523000, 32524000, 32570000, 32571000, 32572000

II.1.6)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes
II.2)Total final value of contract(s)
II.2.1)Total final value of contract(s)

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Type of procedure
IV.1.1)Type of procedure
competitive dialogue
IV.2)Award criteria
IV.2.1)Award criteria
The most economically advantageous tender in terms of
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
IV.2.2)Information about electronic auction
An electronic auction has been used: no
IV.3)Administrative information
IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority
IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

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

V.1)Date of contract award decision:
14.3.2013
V.2)Information about offers
Number of offers received: 1
V.3)Name and address of economic operator in favour of whom the contract award decision has been taken

BT Group
BT Centre, 81 Newgate Street
EC1A 7AJ London
UNITED KINGDOM

V.4)Information on value of contract
Initial estimated total value of the contract:
Value: 12 000 000 GBP
Excluding VAT
V.5)Information about subcontracting
The contract is likely to be sub-contracted: no

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about European Union funds
The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: yes
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.
VI.2)Additional information:
VI.3)Procedures for appeal
VI.3.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures

Rutland County Council
Council Offices, Catmose
LE15 6HP Oakham
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 1572722577

VI.3.2)Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals: Rutland County Council has incorporated a 10 day standstill period at the point of notification of the decision to award the contract conditionally, subject to the granting of state aid approval. That standstill period concluded on 29th March 2012.
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.
VI.3.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained
VI.4)Date of dispatch of this notice:
25.4.2013