Published date: 20 July 2023

Last edited date: 2 August 2023

This notice was replaced on 21 November 2023

This notice does not contain the most up-to-date information about this procurement. The most recent notice is:

Awarded contract (published 21 November 2023)

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Contract summary

Industry

  • Environmental engineering consultancy services - 71313000

Location of contract

United Kingdom

Value of contract

£30,000 to £48,000

Procurement reference

NMS-Detailed Design Guidance

Published date

20 July 2023

Closing date

16 August 2023

Closing time

5pm

Contract start date

4 September 2023

Contract end date

14 January 2024

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (below threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

Description

The objective of this project is to develop detailed design guidance, based on the best-practice approaches taken by professionals in the feasibility, design and maintenance of treatment wetlands for nutrient mitigation. This will ensure that a set standard for high-quality nature-based solutions is delivered through the Nutrient Mitigation Scheme and other nutrient neutrality mechanisms.

The guidance will be used by design and build contractors, as well as local authorities and consenting bodies to ensure wetland proposals are technically robust and will complement the structure of the wetland mitigation framework, as far as is achievable and logical.

This should focus on integrated constructed wetland, free surface wetland and other viable wetland mitigation proposals, taking into account the degree of certainty that nutrient reductions will be achieved, alongside a range of other considerations including compatibility with wider habitat restoration opportunities.

The guidance must:
Set out the processes, calculations, tools and formatting of wetland design processes from feasibility and concept design stages through to detailed design.

Utilise at least one case study to demonstrate real-world application of the principles and processes within the guidance.

Outline planning, permitting and consenting considerations and signposting to how to carry out these stages effectively.

Specify the tasks involved in implementation, operation and maintenance of treatment wetlands, and their associated infrastructure, including timescales and waste management processes.

Set out how the above stages key into the existing wetland mitigation framework with degrees of confidence assigned to each process where more than one pathway is presented

Provide information on designing wetlands in areas of competing interests; such as where flood management or abstraction pressures exist. (e.g. minimising the impact of abstraction/offtake on depleted reaches of watercourses)

Contain information on opportunities to integrate positive biodiversity outcomes within and adjacent to the wetland proposals.

Be written for an informed audience, including technical designers and engineers, local authorities and other consenting bodies, who can be assumed to have an existing basic understanding of wetland processes and design parameters.

Outline how to deliver high-quality wetlands that are robust to changing climatic variables. (e.g. how to design wetlands where flows may become more variable due to future prolonged drought and rainfall events)
Provide a description of how costs would be determined from a detailed design (i.e. what are the cost items associated with the design and delivery of a treatment wetland solution).

Be based on the best available evidence.

The design approaches should be bespoke and proportional to the types of solutions covered in the guidance and include the parameters used to delineate the selection of one design process over another.

More information

Attachments

About the buyer

Contact name

Mark Jones

Address

Natural England
Rivers House, East Quay
Bridgwater
TA6 4YS
England

Telephone

07876146111

Email

mark.jones@naturalengland.org.uk