Churchgate Project - The Procurement Process
A fuller account of the process followed can be found in the report to Full Council on 25 February 2010: Churchgate and Surrounding Area - Churchgate Project, Procurement and next steps 
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Competitive dialogue was chosen as the procurement method as the Council were advised it was the best method to bring forward a complex contract such as the Churchgate Project. Additionally whilst the Council had consulted to identify the potential sites to be included in the project, and had drawn up the Churchgate Planning Brief, no fixed scheme had been decided upon. The advantage of the competitive dialogue process was that it allowed developers, who are the experts in the field, to look at an opportunity and create their own ideas for how to redevelop the area rather than having to tender against a solution drawn up by the Council.
The process started with the notice prescribed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 being published via the Official Journal of the European Union on 23 May 2008. Twelve bidders submitted Pre-Qualification Questionnaires which were assessed against objective and published criteria in respect of financial information, professional ability and technical capacity. All the criteria were backward looking to assess the bidders on their past performance. In other words, the Council was not entitled to seek the bidder’s development ideas at that stage. The top four scoring bidders were invited to participate in the dialogue phase, these were:-
- Crest Nicholson Regeneration Ltd
- Kier Property Ltd
- Simons Developments Ltd
- Thornfield Properties Plc
The top four scoring bidders invited to participate in dialogue attended launch meetings held separately with each during the first week of September 2008. The dialogue phase started the negotiation process to select the bidder whose design best met the Council’s requirements. Bidders were assessed on quality and design, viability, financial return and commerciality, and delivery programme. The 16 Key Development Objectives against which any scheme proposals were assessed were drawn out of the Churchgate Planning Brief. Therefore the Council procured against criteria which had already had substantial input from the public.
Initial dialogue sessions were held with each bidder and Outline Solutions prepared. This was a ‘high-level’ exercise and used to discuss the bidders’ initial thoughts and inform discussions for the remainder of the process. Prior to the submission date for the Outline Solutions in October 2008 two bidders, Thornfield Properties and Kier Property, voluntarily deselected themselves by withdrawing and not submitting an Outline Solution respectively.
Dialogue continued with two bidders for a further twelve months until in October 2009 Crest Nicholson Regeneration Ltd voluntarily deselected themselves from the process, creating a situation whereby there was just one bidder remaining. The Council carefully considered the issue and concluded that the procurement process should continue with safeguards in place to ensure that value for money was obtained from the remaining bid.
Dialogue continued with Simons Developments until the Council was satisfied that there was a solution presented by Simons which was capable of meeting its needs. On 16 December 2009 the Council formally closed the Competitive Dialogue and issued an Invitation to Tender to Simons. Simons Developments submitted their tender on 23 December 2009. Although there was only one bidder remaining, the Council continued with the procurement process mapped out at the start. The remaining bidder had to submit a final tender, marked against the criteria set out at the beginning of the procurement process.
The ultimate decision as to whether a contract was awarded or not fell to Full Council on 25 February 2010, but a number of other committees were included in the process and were able to make recommendations including the Hitchin Town Centre Working Party meeting, Cabinet on 16 February 2010, Scrutiny Committee and Hitchin Area Committee on 22 February 2010.
The Cabinet, Scrutiny and Hitchin Area committees, Council Meetings, Agendas and Minutes.
Hitchin PQQ Final Evaluation Report(2.3MB) 
Hitchin ITT Evaluation Report (2/2/10) Redacted (394kb)
Document Publication Schedule(14kb)
Churchgate and Surrounding Area Tender Scoring Report 25.02.2010 redacted(131kb)
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