The procurement contact named on the official notice.

Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council (“the Council”) is in the process of preparing a tender for the provision of tree maintenance services.

The Council is publishing this Preliminary Market Engagement Notice to help inform the way it is to structure the tender and provide advance notice to the market of the impending tender.

Basingstoke’s landscape is an enormous asset and includes many trees & woodlands that make it one of the greener towns in the south.

For example, the Forestry Commission’s national ‘Tree Inventory’ dataset shows approximately 15% (9600 hectares) is covered by woodlands and copses compared to the national average of 7%.

The Council is seeking one contractor to provide a comprehensive tree maintenance service throughout the borough.

The outcome of the procurement needs to reflect a theme that underpins the Council’s priorities to ensure the use of technology to improve customer access, speed up processes and enter into service delivery arrangements that improve the service and reduce cost.

The initial plan is for the contract to be for an initial term of 5 years with an option to extend the contract by 2 years in 2030.

The contract is anticipated to commence at the end of 2025.

It is expected that the tender will be published in August 2025 using the Open Procedure, based on the Procurement Act 2023.

Scope of Services The outline scope is provided below: •The Contractor is required to provide the highest standards of health & safety, and arboricultural expertise and workmanship; providing sufficient vehicles, equipment and staff to ensure delivery. •The Contractor will supply all labour, plant, equipment and materials (except where specified) necessary to carry out all tree maintenance work. •The Contractor will be required to operate a 24-hour day, 7-day week, and 365-day year call out service for emergency tree works throughout the year including Bank Holidays.

This will include emergencies during normal working hours plus Out of Hours (OOH) emergency call-outs. •Due to the urgent nature and safety implications of the works required, it is expected that the Contractor will be able to provide a response time within 30 minutes. •The Council has no depot, parking or welfare facilities available for use by the Contractor and it is therefore essential that the Contractor will have to secure such facilities ideally within the Borough or certainly close by.

The service will include: •Whole tree felling/coppicing/monolithing/pollarding/clearing fallen trees •Stump removal (grinding and excavation)/chemical treatment; •Pruning operations/crown-reduction & lifting/epicormic & basal growth; •Crown-cleaning/removal of hung-up and individual branches/deadwood and stubs/severing of climbing plants; •Aerial inspections/cable-bracing; •Woodland thinning/fenceline clearance; •Tree planting/watering & weeding.

Preliminary Market Engagement Feedback The Council is looking to establish and understand the level of market interest in this opportunity, based on the outline requirements shown above.

If you are a contractor that would be interested in this opportunity and would like to be kept updated on progress for this tender please e-mail procurement@basingstoke.gov.uk before 17:00 on 17th July 2025.

If you are a contractor that wishes to provide additional feedback on the proposed procurement approach this can be submitted via the e-mail above.