Councillor Tim McNally, Executive Member for Resources, will provide a brief update on the progress of the tendering process for the new catering service at Tooley Street.
Minutes:
5.1 Councillor McNally, Executive Member for Resources, gave the sub-committee an update on the tendering process for the catering service at Tooley Street. The Councillor’s report was as follows:
5.2 The cafe and meeting room services contracts are being tendered as two separate contracts. The cafe contract will be tendered as a licence to occupy and will be at nil cost to the Council. The subsistence service contract will be tendered with a very limited indicative spend which is rechargeable back to the departments, services will only be provided to the ground floor and for meetings which run over meal times will external visitors present (working lunches). The Council is not committed to this level of spend.
5.3 The non-subsidised cafe will be a barista style coffee bar with a range of cakes pastries and cold snacks, a small hot counter providing a limited display of hot snacks and a “help yourself” refrigerated display containing sandwiches, boxed salads and cold beverages. The cafe will be available to all Council staff and visitors. It will not be available to members of the general public.
5.4 The cafe will provide a “value for money” service to its customers and will provide tariffs for certain “subsistence” food and drinks that are set at a competitive level that is no higher than 10-15% below equivalent high street pricing.
5.5 The meeting room service will provide beverages, working lunches, working breakfasts etc to the training and meeting room areas on the ground floor.
5.6 Throughout the procurement process we have sought advice from Annie Baker on sustainability, Naomi Baker on energy and Mary Coldham on economic development. Tricon Foodservice has provided the necessary technical support and the Council’s Legal, Procurement and Finance departments have been consulted on the entire procurement process.
5.7 The evaluation panel will be chaired by Anne Lippitt and the panel members will be Annie Baker (Sustainability), Paul Wright (Tricon Consultants for technical capability), Janita Vara (Procurement), Jim Lo (Health and Social Care), Lola Okuboyejo (Communities, Law and Governance) and Councillor Tim McNally.
5.8 Throughout consultation with the specialist advisors listed above it was soon clear that four key objectives emerged as vital to the Council and this procurement as a whole. These key objectives were
· fair-trade,
· sustainability & recycling,
· local providers and supply chain
· healthy eating.
5.9 These objectives feature heavily through the specification, method statements and evaluation criteria.
5.10 The Council initially advertised to local organisations via the Council’s Economic Development and Strategic Partnerships resulting in a response from 30 organisations. The Council also approached 28 companies that had previously entered themselves onto the Council’s “Register of Interest”.
5.11 All of these organisations were contacted and invited to put forward an initial expression if interest. This also included a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). 12 organisations expressed an interest and returned the PQQ’s. These organisations included both large and small companies and various local enterprise organisations. The PQQ’s are currently being evaluated. The tender documents will then be issued as per the timetable below.
Key dates are as follows:
9 Oct Completion of evaluation of PQQ’s
14 Oct Tender packs issued
16 Oct Contractors visit our site
30 Oct Tenders returned
2 - 11 Nov Evaluation period
11 - 13 Nov Shortlisting of contractors (final 4)
16 - 20 Nov Panel visits to contractor sites and tastings
27 Nov Award of contract
27 Nov – 10 Jan Contractor mobilisation period
11 Jan 2010 COMMENCEMENT OF SERVICES ON SITE
5.12 Following on from his report, The Executive Member said that the catering facility would be provided free to the successful tendering company, only on the condition that the food is subsidised at a reasonable rate. It was recognised that staff can arrive earlier and stay later at work and the Council has an interest in ensuring that staff have access to good quality food at a reasonable price. However, Members were concerned that the Council was using tax payers money to subsidise a facility that only Council staff could use. The Executive Member said that there were a lot of food options in the area and many have signed up to the District Improvement Business scheme which offers staff a variety of discounts. However, Members felt that schemes such as these weren’t always positive because they seemed to promote the multinational companies over local food outlets.
5.13 Members wanted to ensure that there were good environmentally friendly and healthy options wherever possible. For instance there should be water dispensers in the cafe area rather than staff having to rely on bottled water. Metal knives and forks should be provided as the main preference over plastic, disposable utensils. Members wanted to emphasise that the new company should be providing seasonal, organic and compassionately farmed food.
5.14 It was thought that having a company preparing food on site was more sustainable and this should be a significant consideration when selecting a company. Cutting out transporting and packaging costs and keeping down environmental damage must be at the forefront of the Council’s considerations.