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Pre-Approved Contractors List Policy

Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council owns and maintains the Village Hall building, green areas and facilities around the Parish.

The function of this policy is to provide a pre-approved Contractor list that the Council can draw upon for a range of buildings-related services. These can be:

  • short-notice reactive maintenance,
  • planned maintenance,
  • minor works,
  • external groundworks and
  • civil works.

Pre-approval contractors       

This policy applies only in respect of those contracts that may be exempt from the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, as detailed in the Council’s Financial Regulations.

The Council needs to have access to pre-approved contractors to supply routine services or who can be called on to provide emergency services, including but not limited to:

  1. Electricians
  2. General builders
  3. Handyman
  4. Glaziers
  5. Grass and hedge cutting contractors
  6. Groundworkers
  7. Locksmiths
  8. Plant hirers
  9. Play equipment repairers
  10. Plumbing and heating engineers
  11. Tree surgeons

Contractors wishing to be included in the Council’s register of approved contractors will be required to complete a registration form (Appendix 1)

The register of approved contractors will be reviewed periodically.

Value for money, market testing and tender criteria

Value for money – All local authorities seek to derive best value from procurement they instigate, but this is not always about the lowest price. Quality of product or service, technical knowledge, capability and capacity to deliver, resources, including financial resources, to support, previous experience and safety record, all play a part in determining which contractor is used.

At times specialist knowledge may be required, which may be derived also from previous involvement where previous work, may also help to keep pricing at competitive levels.

However previous use and experience should not deter new entrants from wishing to seek selection as an approved contractor.

Where general product of a more transactional nature, with little perceived risk, is being considered (eg Stationery, cleaning materials, low value tools) then use of the internet to enable competitive comparison of product and price will be used.

Market Testing – if the procurement is of a general nature and not requiring specialist skills and knowledge, nor have significant risk attached to it, it may be a simple exercise to seek comparative quotations from three existing contractors. This will help obtain a benchmark price, which if other characteristics meet procurement requirements, may be the determining factor for selection.

There is however an administrative cost in seeking competitive quotations and therefore Market testing should only be used where it is financially effective to do so. This effectiveness will relate to type of contract, degree of complexity and specialism required, safety risk and overall value of works to be placed and will always be in accordance with the Council Finance Regulation

Application process and Council requirements

Once a year an advert will be placed in the Parish Council’s newsletter, on social media and posters will be displayed in the Parish Council Noticeboards asking businesses to register their interest in becoming an approved contractor to Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council.

The Council Website will also display an open invitation for any business wishing to supply the Parish Council with its services to register their interest.

All existing contractors will also be contacted to seek renewal of their interest.

Those that are approved are not guaranteed that quotations will be sought from them but wherever possible the ambition of Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council will be to foster and develop relationships where possible to do so.

By being selected, an approved contractor will consent to allowing their name to be published as an approved contractor.

Approved contractors list

A list of approved contractors will be available for reference on Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council Website.

If invitations to quote for business are requested from Approved Contractors and are not responded to on three consecutive occasions, then there will be an assumption that the Pre Approved Contractor no longer wishes to be part of the seeking of competitive quotation process and will be removed from the approved Pre-Approved Contractors list

Where the nature of works lends itself to an hourly based payment prospective, Contractors will be asked to provide:

  1. an hourly rate for works carried out
  2. a call out rate
  3. out of hours charges (core hours 8am to 6pm)
  4. travelling time costs if applied
  5. anticipated response times for emergency related works.

Where materials are provided the amount of percentage mark up to cover administrative.

All prospective contractors must agree for their information to be made publicly available for reference on the Councils website.

Monitoring performance

Value for money in the initial pricing is only one factor when considering the placing of business.

Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council wants to establish longer term relationships with Contractors and a key part of this is building confidence in the Contractors ability to deliver and therefore performance will be measured in terms of the Contractor ability to not only deliver but also within time, to the required quality level and compliance with all aspects of the specification of works.

The level of performance measures will be contract specific but where contracts are awarded for outsourcing delivery of services and involve continual delivery of services, monitoring of performance levels will be more frequent.

It will not be unusual for liquidated damages to be imposed where services are not carried out in accordance with the requirements of the contract.

Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council obligations to contractors

In furtherance of wishing to establish longer term relationships with contractors, and help business, especially local business, to prosper, it is keen to work with contractors in an open and transparent way.

Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council recognises that simply by seeking competitive quotations this may not provide all the information necessary for a business to effectively quote and therefore will as a matter of course make itself available to discuss the requirements face to face with any prospective contractor.

Any variation to the works proposed will be agreed by way of a separate side letter and either amended or additional purchase order reflecting the agreed variation.

Providing all works have been completed and contractors’ bank details have been provided, payment will be made by BACS upon receipt of invoice within a maximum period of 28 days, although the aim will be to make payment within 14 days wherever possible.

Shavington-cum-Gresty Parish Council is aware of the impact of cash flow on small business and where appropriate and by prior agreement stage payment may be considered.