NL436 Telford: Park Road Japanese Knotweed Excavation Works 2015

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the single, national housing and regeneration delivery agency for England. Our vision is to create opportunity for people to live in homes they can afford in places they want to live, by enabling local authorities and communities to deliver the ambition they have for their own areas. For more information visit www.gov.uk/hca

In the achievement of this vision, the HCA ‘holds’ large expanses of land and built estate. Whilst these sites help facilitate the delivery of the vision for the organisation, they also bring duties of care, health and safety, trespass and other liabilities and responsibilities. As part of the solution to manage such liabilities the HCA procure Works to undertake routine and emergency activities on its estate.

The HCA is seeking to appoint a competent Supplier for the provision of Japanese Knotweed Removal Works, installation of Root Barrier and Chemical Spraying for land at Park Road, Dawley Bank, Telford. The site is an undulating plot of land due to be developed for housing in Autumn 2015.

Nine stands of Japanese Knotweed are located on site. Works are required to excavate the nine stands of Japanese Knotweed and remove off-site as Controlled Waste to an authorised landfill.

Chemical Treatment (Spraying) is to be undertaken using Glyphosate to identified areas. It is essential that a competent and qualified person carries out the herbicide treatment. Herbicides shall only be handled and applied by persons holding a valid Certificate of Competence issued under the Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986. The Supplier will be required to provide the Contract Administrator with copies of the Certificates for each relevant person undertaking spraying activities. Where necessary, the Supplier shall engage a specialist subcontractor to comply with this requirement.

A root barrier is to be installed this it to be triple coated, twin reinforced, impermeable polyethylene barrier membrane, buried to 3m to prevent the possibility of Japanese Knotweed entering the site via Rhizome growth in the future.

Suppliers should be members of the Property Care Association (PCA) and/or Invasive Non-Native Specialists Association. Where a Supplier is not a member of the above trade organisations they must provide evidence of accreditation to a commensurate scheme or evidence of a proven track record of experience in Japanese Knotweed Removal Works.

Suppliers will be required to provide Warranties and Guarantees for these Works as detailed in the Invitation to Tender.

The minimum level of Public Indemnity & Employers Liability insurance cover needed for this Contract is £5 million and £10 million respectively. Professional Indemnity Insurance of £10 million is required.

The site will be available for viewing during this Tender. Suppliers will be required to visit the site prior to Pricing and will be required to confirm this within the Tender return.

Additional information: Tender closing time is 1pm. So as to receive notifications of clarification questions asked by Suppliers and the Agency’s response, Suppliers must click the ‘Watch this Notice’ button on the notice within Contracts Finder to receive email notification when changes/updates are made to the notice. Please note in order to use this feature Suppliers must be registered with Contracts Finder. It is the Suppliers responsibility to check Contracts Finder for any updates to the procurement process throughout the tender process. No claim on the grounds of lack of knowledge of the above mentioned item will be entertained.

Suppliers wishing to tender for HCA contracts which involve physical Works or Services such as construction, demolition or building maintenance, must either be registered and assessed by a prequalification assessment scheme which is a member of SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement), be able to demonstrate membership of an equivalent scheme or complete a Health and Safety Questionnaire. SSIP membership must either already be in place, or be likely to be in place when Tenders are to be returned to the HCA. Therefore, it is recommended that applications should already be submitted when Suppliers submit their Suitability Assessment. Further information on SSIP and details of assessment scheme members can be found on http://www.ssip.org.uk/. Details of equivalent membership schemes will be investigated and the HCA reserves the right to contact Suppliers to investigate this further in order to assess these fairly. For the avoidance of doubt details of equivalent membership schemes will need to be provided in English.

All discussions, meetings and communications will be conducted in English.

The contract will be subject to English law. Tenders and all supporting documents must be priced in GBP and all payments under the contract will be made in GBP.

This procurement and award is subject to the transparency arrangements adopted by the UK Government. Please refer to the Tender Document for further information.

Suppliers are advised that the HCA is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("The Act"). If a Supplier considers that any of the information provided as part of this procurement procedure should not be disclosed because of its commercial sensitivity, confidential or otherwise, they must, when providing this information, clearly identify the specific information they do not wish to be disclosed and clearly specify the reasons for its sensitivity. Please refer to the Tender Document for further information.

The HCA takes a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption and sets high standards of impartiality, integrity and objectivity in relation to the stewardship of public funds and the management of its activities. Please refer to our Anti-bribery and Corruption Policy by visiting, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-bribery-and-corruption-policy for further information.