Archived decisions

Contact: Steve Nicholson, tel 023 9284 1795

1. Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to inform the Panel of recent progress on the continued development of the project now that the procurement process timetable has commenced.

2. Commencing the Procurement Competition

2.1 During January 2002, subject to receiving the final sign-off from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the Project Team intends to invite expressions of interest from the private sector by advertising the South Hampshire Rapid Transit 1 (SHRT 1) procurement opportunity in the Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC). Interested parties will be provided with a project guide explaining the SHRT 1 scheme and the proposed public private partnership. Candidates will also be advised of the potential for wider SHRT future opportunities, and the draft prospectus for wider SHRT provides a useful statement of the promoters' vision for rapid transit systems in South Hampshire.

2.2 Candidates wanting to be considered in the pre-qualifying process will be required to submit specific information to enable their suitability to be assessed. Candidates will be evaluated against standard criteria covering general eligibility, economic, financial and technical qualities. The aim of the pre-qualification evaluation process is to select the four most suitable organisations or consortia which will be invited to bid for the proposed SHRT 1 Concession.

3. Consultation with the OGC

3.1 Before commencing the procurement competition, the project team is required to satisfy the OGC that sufficient progress had been made in preparing key areas of the draft Concession structure. In mid-December 2001 a submission went to the OGC reporting current developments relating to the Promoters' Fares Policy and draft Output Specification, which also explained the proposed commercial approach for SHRT 1 compared with the Government's standard guidelines for public private partnership contracts. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman were consulted prior to forwarding the submission to the OGC and comments from Government officials at the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) were reflected in the final submission documents.

4. Project Team

4.1 The SHRT 1 Project Director (Steve Nicholson) joined the Project Team on 5 November 2001. The project responsibility then transferred to the new Project Director from the interim management of Trevor Wallis and Colin Taylor.

4.2 Sue Kilbride joined the team in January 2002 as the project lawyer, and a preferred candidate has been identified as a public relations officer.

4.3 Land and Estates officers from the County Council and Portsmouth City Council have commenced negotiations for the acquisition of land and rights required to construct and operate SHRT 1. As this work is being managed efficiently from local estates offices in Winchester and Portsmouth, it will not be necessary to relocate staff to the SHRT project office.

4.4 Additional support will be provided from internal staff drawn from the promoters' organisations, dealing in particular with Central Government public private partnership policy, local highway interface, urban design and landscape and financial issues. Portsmouth Landscape Architects have now been commissioned to expand the Urban Design Guide.

4.5 The appointment of external consultants and advisers is near to completion and the following organisations are now working on the SHRT 1 project:

(i) Financial - Ernst and Young;

(ii) Legal - Dibb, Lupton and Allsop;

(iii) Technical - Parsons Brinckerhoff;

(iv) Insurance - AON; and

(v) Transport Economists - (to be appointed shortly).

4.6 Access to Parliamentary Agents is still retained, to be used as required, and the support of HM Railway Inspectorate has been engaged to help define the contract requirements and improve the information to be provided at tendering stage to get best value.

5. Project Issues

Tunnel

5.1 As reported to the Panel on 1 November 2001, the Ministry of Defence has advised that an extra 2.5 metres draught is now required for future new aircraft carriers. The SHRT project team is about to submit a report on this matter to the DTLR.

6. Publicity

6.1 There is evidence of increasing public interest, manifest in several local news stories and reports that have appeared in the national technical press.

6.2 A newsletter providing information about the most recent developments on the project has been delivered to all addresses with postcodes adjoining the route. Members of staff at Portsmouth City Council, Fareham Borough Council and Gosport Borough Council have received copies, as have all members of the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Chamber of Commerce. In total around 80,000 copies of the newsletter have been issued.

7. Project Budget

7.1 A budget has been formulated up until estimated financial close, which takes into account all known factors as well as estimated costs. The following table shows the budget for the three years:

Detailed breakdown in attached appendix.

7.2 The Internal Team is multi disciplinary and is based at Portsmouth Civic Offices. Disciplines covered include:

(i) engineering/land use/environment;

(ii) legal;

(iii) public relations;

(iv) financial;

(v) estates; and

(vi) administration.

7.3 The internal charges are for support from County Council and Portsmouth City Council staff who are not permanent members of the project team. The project will draw on various supporting services during procurement and contract supervision. The estimate covers internal charges where it has been possible to identify support services at this stage.

7.4 The accommodation costs relate to the internal team being situated in Portsmouth and office expenses relate to the running costs of the team.

7.5 External consultants' estimates cover the following disciplines:

(i) legal;

(ii) financial;

(iii) technical;

(iv) transport economists;

(v) insurance;

(vi) Parliamentary Agents; and

(vii) HM Railway Inspectorate.

7.6 The Budgets will be funded from the following sources:

(i) Hampshire County Council;

(ii) Portsmouth City Council; and

(iii) DTLR contributions.

8. Promoters' Agreement

8.1 The promoters' agreement should be in place before tenders are invited (ie the invitation to negotiate), which is planned for June 2002.

9. Programme

9.1 The key dates to keep the momentum and impetus of the project on course for completion by 2006/07 are detailed below:

Recommendation

That this report be noted and the outline programme and project budget be endorsed.

6963/SN