Decision details

To accept the fee proposal received from OFR CONSULTANTS LIMITED to act as Fire Engineering Consultants for the redevelopment of the former Monkscroft School Site and for CBC to enter contract with them.

In recent months we have been working to appoint the consultants required to work as a wider design team with the intention of submitting a planning application for the site later this year.

For the appointment of the Fire Engineering Consultant the project team explored a range of potential procurement options and Frameworks.

Due to the estimated low value of this specific discipline the team decided to approach the market of several avenues including approaching the NHSSBS Framework, which had been utilised on other appointments recently, and contacted companies which specialises in Fire consultation.

3 companies where shortlisted via the NHSSBS framework under Lot 11 (Ancillary Services), however, 2 of the approached companies confirmed that they were not able to provide a proposal and as such eliminated themselves from the process.

The remaining company has still not confirmed their proposal and has been asked to stand down.

Via the lead designer we obtained recommendations for other companies they successfully have worked with in the past on similar projects.
The lead designer, BDP, obtained proposals on behalf of CBC.

OFR CONSULTANTS LIMTED was therefore identified as a suitable supplier and able to provide the expertise required within the core services. The purpose of this appointment is to develop an outline fire safety strategy to demonstrate how the proposed buildings can meet the requirements of the Building Regulations and to produce a preliminary detailed fire strategy report and support the Building Regulations approvals process through consultation with the approval authorities.

The proposal is to enter contract with OFR Consultants Limited following the described procurement process for the redevelopment of the former Monkscroft School site to provide new affordable homes to develop the site from concept design stage at RIBA Stage 2 through to RIBA Stage 4a.

An alternative option would have been to procure the design and technical services as one multi-disciplinary appointment. However, this scenario was assessed, and found that a project of this complexity would need to have independent consultants appointed to develop and support the design process – this approach was rejected earlier in the procurement planning process.

We have worked with Publica around the procurement process, and internal consultation within the development team along with support from the externally appointed Project Management team, TSA Riley.
We received feedback and support from Publica as we have been tried to obtain more than 3 quotes demonstrating best value.

The principle of redeveloping the site is supported by the overarching governance bodies for new supply comprising CBC/CBH Senior Officers at SHDG and Cabinet Member Housing Working Group.