London Borough of Tower Hamlets is seeking expression of interests from suitable and experienced organisations to install, maintain, repair and clean its community information panels via a concessions agreement while maximising coverage and ensuring the best value for money.

The Council has 43 CIPs as static 6 sheet advertising sites across the borough. Currently, the exposure received from these is 50 % for the Council via coverage wholly on one side while the other side is used entirely for external advertising by the contractor.

The Council is now looking to agree a new 10-year contract (7 + 3). The successful contractor will be expected to meet the Council’s objectives below as well as take full responsibility for the installation, maintenance, repair and cleaning of the panels. In addition to this, the contractor will be responsible for the display and maintenance of artwork.

The successful contractor is expected to pay the Council an annual remuneration for the provision of the land upon which the CIPs will be erected, while the Council accepts that the contractor will recoup profits from the sale of advertising.

The Council’s objectives are to:

— increase the number of the CIPs to gain increased exposure across the borough,

— convert as many of the existing static 43 CIPs to digital as possible,

— guarantee larger coverage in the borough for key Council communication campaigns, and more advertising impressions,

— guarantee a significant portion of advertising space on any digital panels for Council campaigns,

— ensure reasonable remuneration for site rental,

— ensure adequate access to advertising time for the Council’s own needs.

The tender process will be running over a 3-month period in order to provide bidders adequate time to work with the Council’s Planning Department, highways team and any other external bodies to understand the installation requirements and feed into their bids.

The Council has attached a list of 20 potential new sites with the support of the planning team – which have been deemed as either:

— Amber (Could potentially be supported subject to further information or a slight relocation),

— Green (No immediate concerns and likely to be supported) in initial reports.

While this preliminary research has been provided, it should be used as a guide and bidders are advised to carry out their own investigations.

Organisations wishing to express their interest are requested to register on the London Tenders Portal (www.londontenders.org) where the opportunity documentation will be available for download. You will be required to complete an online questionnaire.

Organisations must ensure that access to the system is available to their representatives dealing with the contract and that this contact is updated as and when required.

The Council will not be liable for the lack of delegated access within the organisation and will not send any documentation regarding the opportunity, which shall be exclusively available through the portal.