Decision details

To consider the report of the Head of Leisure and Culture seeking approval to appoint the preferred bidder for the Golf Course and approve the awarding of a 12 year contract for the preferred bidder to manage and operate the Golf Course on behalf of the Council.

A delegation was approved at Cabinet on 15^th February 2010 Recommendation (ii)) to delegate authority to the Executive Director of Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Executive Director of Resources and the Solicitor to Council to appoint a preferred partner for the management and operation of the Southampton Municipal Golf Course in accordance with the framework set out in the Confidential Appendix 2 of the report to Cabinet.

(i)  To appoint the preferred partner (identified at confidential Appendix 1) to manage and operate the Municipal Golf Course, for a contractual period of 12 years, at or above the level of annual net savings when compared to the public sector comparator (PSC) set out in the Appendix.

(ii)  To authorise the Solicitor to the Council, following consultation with the Executive Director of Neighbourhoods, to agree and finalise all contract and associated documentation and to take any action necessary to effect the proposals in this report.

1. The Council proposes to let a 12 year contract for the management and operation of the Municipal Golf Course. Following issue of an OJEU notice advertising this opportunity in August 2009, the Council has completed a short but focussed Competitive Dialogue procurement process. The Council has fully evaluated bidders’ final proposals and is in a position to recommend a preferred bidder, as outlined in Appendix 1.
2. To appoint a preferred bidder and subsequently finalise the contract through a fine tuning stage from mid May to the end of June 2010. The purpose of this phase would be to undertake any fine tuning necessary to allow contract completion and meet the handover date target of the 1 September 2010.

An alternative option is not to pursue the letting of contracts for Package 1. It is felt that not entering into a partnership with partners will fail to contribute to the Council’s three key objectives for Sport and Recreation. The financial, quality and increased participation benefits outlined in this paper will not be fully achieved by maintaining the current operation model for Sport and Recreation.