Contract award notice
Results of the procurement procedure
Section I: Contracting
entity
I.1) Name and addresses
Newry Mourne and Down District Council
Downshire Civic Centre
Downpatrick
BT30 6GQ
UK
Contact person: Only Online through portal at: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
E-mail: David.Barter@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council
Civic Centre, 50 Stiles Way
Antrim
BT41 2UB
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Ards and North Down Borough Council
The Castle
Bangor
BT20 4BT
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council
The Palace Demesne
Armagh
BT60 4EL
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council
66 Portstewart Road
Coleraine
BT52 1EY
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Derry City and Strabane District Council
98 Strand Road
Derry
BT48 7NN
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Fermanagh and Omagh District Council
2 Townhall Street
Enniskillen
BT74 7BA
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council
Lagan Valley Island
Lisburn
BT27 4RL
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
1-29 Bridge Street
Ballymena
BT43 5EJ
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Mid Ulster District Council
Burn Road
Cookstown
BT80 8DT
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.1) Name and addresses
Business Services Organisation (BSO)
2 Franklin Street
Belfast
BT2 8DQ
UK
Contact person: Michael Forster
E-mail: michael.forster@nmandd.org
NUTS: UKN0
Internet address(es)
Main address: www.newrymournedown.org
Address of the buyer profile: www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
I.2) Joint procurement
The contract involves joint procurement
I.4) Type of the contracting authority
Regional or local authority
I.5) Main activity
General public services
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
Full Fibre Northern Ireland — Gigabit Capable Fibre Tranche 1
Reference number: 79-2019
II.1.2) Main CPV code
72000000
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is the host organisation for the Full Fibre Northern Ireland (FFNI) Consortium.
FFNI is a Consortium of the ten councils in Northern Ireland outside Belfast.
FFNI was awarded a grant of GBP 15 000 000 from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Wave 3 Local Full Fibre Network Programme. This is supplemented by other sources of funding, including DCMS Rural Gigabit Connectivity grant funding and Consortium Member and Customer funding.
FFNI’s Gigabit Capable Fibre project recognises that the provision of high quality, reliable high-speed connectivity is a necessity for a 21st century economy and society. FFNI is therefore seeking to future proof its own network connectivity requirements for the next 20 years or more through the installation of gigabit capable digital infrastructure services.
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.1.7) Total value of the procurement
Value excluding VAT:
13 771 085.00
GBP
II.2) Description
II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
72720000
32410000
32400000
32420000
32430000
32500000
32510000
32520000
32560000
32570000
32580000
51300000
45000000
50330000
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKN0
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (The Council) hosts the Full Fibre Northern Ireland (FFNI) Consortium and is procuring services on behalf of the Consortium Members and other public sector customers.
FFNI is a Consortium of the ten Northern Ireland Councils outside Belfast.
This procurement is one of several that will be operated by the Council on behalf of the customers, dividing the total requirement into smaller collections of sites.
The Council wishes to procure a supplier of Gigabit-Capable Fibre connectivity services that will underpin wide area network connectivity to customer sites.
FFNI’s Gigabit Capable Connectivity Project is part-funded by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) through Wave 3 of its Local Full Fibre Network Programme (LFFN). It may also be part-funded by the DCMS Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) Programme, and by other sources of funding.
The Council requires the supplier to design, build and operate the services over the duration of the contract.
The Council wishes to procure replacement access circuits in the form of Point-to-Point (P2P) dark fibre, or virtual equivalent circuits (Tail Circuit Services) to customer locations across the Consortium Members’ administrative areas.
These infrastructure services will be procured over the long term, from 20 to 30 years or more. It is anticipated that through the potentially large number of connected sites, economies of scale may be realised through aggregation, leading to innovative and cost-effective solutions from the market.
The customers intend to separate the provision of these infrastructure services from the provision of their Wide Area Network (WAN) services. Their WAN managed services will be delivered through the arrangements with existing WAN suppliers, or will be separately procured.
The supplier may provide all elements of the Solution itself or may combine commodity services and products from telecoms providers, services from subcontractors, and its own tools, services and expertise, to provide the Solution.
The supplier will provide a service management function to manage proactively the availability of the solution to agreed service levels, and to provide prompt remedial action in the event of failure. All aspects of the service should be compliant with the relevant security, information management and regulatory requirements.
All bids must provide dark fibre (or equivalent) gigabit-capable fibre circuits that meet the requirements described in Requirement 1 of the Volume 2 Requirements document.
The B end connection must be to a Point of Presence that is directly or indirectly accessible to typical WAN Suppliers, so that the circuits may be quickly, cost effectively and practically integrated into the Customers’ WANs.
The circuit must be maintained in usable condition, available to the Customer for a period of at least 20 years.
The supplier will hold a separate contract with each customer, so that this procurement is expected to result in ten separate contracts. However, the contracts will be almost identical, other than in respect of the sites that they cover.
II.2.5) Award criteria
Quality criterion: As specified in the documents
/ Weighting: 70
Cost criterion: As specified in the documents
/ Weighting: 30
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
Yes
Description of options:
The customer may order connections to or between further sites at a future time, for example where further budget becomes available, where new sites are acquired or built, where additional resilience is required, or for other reasons.
The customer may order additional ancillary services and equipment to support the Tail Circuits, including optical network termination equipment and relevant technical services.
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.1) Type of procedure
Open procedure
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
No
IV.2) Administrative information
IV.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number in the OJ S:
2020/S 067-160600
Section V: Award of contract
Title: Full Fibre Northern Ireland — Gigabit Capable Fibre Tranche 1
A contract/lot is awarded:
Yes
V.2 Award of contract
V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
//
V.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 3
Number of tenders received by electronic means: 3
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators:
No
V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
Fibrus Networks Ltd
Belfast
BT12 6QH
UK
NUTS: UKN
The contractor is an SME:
No
V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot:
Total value of the contract/lot:
: 13 771 085.00
GBP
V.2.5) Information about subcontracting
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.3) Additional information
Suppliers will be expected to deliver services that demonstrate a best value approach.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is a Public Authority within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and all correspondence received will be dealt with in accordance with the Act.
Newry Mourne and Down District Council is procuring the public contract on behalf of itself and the following bodies delivering public services (Contracting Bodies):
• Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council;
• Ards and North Down Borough Council;
• Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council;
• Causeway, Coast and Glens Borough Council;
• Derry City and Strabane District Council;
• Fermanagh and Omagh District Council;
• Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council;
• Mid and East Antrim Borough Council;
• Mid Ulster District Council;
• Business Services Organisation.
Any such contracting body will be entitled, with the prior written consent, of and through the Authority, to contract with and require services to be delivered to it by the appointed organisation on the same or substantially the same terms and conditions as agreed with the Authority.
The contracting authority intends to use an e-Tendering system for this procurement process, e-hub www.newrymournedown.org/procurement
Supplier registration is free of charge.
Follow the registration instructions on the e-hub portal.
Browse to the opportunity
Access the volumes of the Invitation to Tender provided.
Submit your Tender Response by the deadline indicated.
It is strongly recommended that suppliers unfamiliar with the e-hub Procurement Portal ensure that they are able to access all relevant functions well ahead of the closing dates, since late responses may not be accepted.
If you have any difficulties with the e-hub Procurement Portal, please call 0800 731 6575.
VI.4) Procedures for review
VI.4.1) Review body
Royal Courts of Justice (NI)
Chichester St.
Belfast
BT1 3 JF
UK
Telephone: +44 2890235111
E-mail: adminoffice@courtsni.gov.uk
Internet address(es)
URL: http://www.courtsni.gov.uk
VI.4.3) Review procedure
Precise information on deadline(s) for review procedures:
The Council will incorporate a minimum 10 calendar day standstill period when information on the award of the contract is communicated to tenderers.
This period allows tenderers to seek further debriefing from the Council before the contract is entered into. Applicants have 2 working days from notice of the award decision to ask for additional debriefing and that information has to be provided a minimum of 3 working days before the expiry of the standstill period. Such additional information should be requested from email address:
david.barter@nmandd.org
If a dispute about contract award has not been successfully resolved the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 allow aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by a breach of the rules to take action in the High Court. Any such action must be brought promptly (generally within 1 month). The purpose of the standstill period referred to above is to allow parties to apply to the Courts to set aside the award decision before the contract is entered into.
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
22/04/2021