VEAT notice intention to award a Public Services Contract for the urgent Replacement and ongoing Maintenance of Cremators at Weeley Crematorium, Essex

The decommissioning, modification, dismantling, removal and disposal of the two existing cremators and associated redundant plant and equipment.

The purchase and installation of two Cremators , and a for 10 year contract for the maintenance, servicing, inspection, testing and repair of cremators, and associated equipment at Weeley Crematorium, Colchester Road, Weeley, Essex, CO16 9JP.

Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition on the UK e-notification service (within the meaning of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015)

• Extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority

Explanation:

In 2015 two new Cremators were supplied and installed in Weeley Crematorium by a company named ATI Environment UK Ltd, who were also responsible for the on-going maintenance. The supplier went into receivership in March 2020, this left a number of local authorities including Tendring District Council with no service contract, and cremator equipment that had become increasingly unreliable and caught fire on one occasion.

The cremators were temporarily repaired in 2020 however, the current plant has now failed entirely, and an independent engineer's report dated October 2021 has confirmed that the plant cannot be returned to safe use, and both cremators are now unusable. Not only has this had a significant impact on the local community especially during the pandemic, but cremations are having to be undertaken at different venues in East Anglian, some distance from the local authority area. Tendring District Council is suffering a substantial loss of income.

Service delivery, compliance and safety can only be achieved by the urgent replacement of the current cremators brought about by previous supplier failure and not by actions attributable to the authority. The required timeline to run an open or restricted process would incur increased reliance on alternative venues outside of the local authority area, continued loss of income to the authority in addition to period for lead in and implementation of the contract. Market insight has demonstrated that Facultative Technologies (FT) are a leading supplier in a very limited market and have a strong financial standing. In addition, the soft market testing demonstrated FT to be cheaper than their main competitor with shorter lead times, minimizing disruption, with time being of the essence to return to a fully operational service for the benefit of the community and the public purse.