Doing business with the Council
What do we buy?
The Council buys a wide variety of goods and services for use by
all departments or, in certain cases, one department in particular.
Some examples of commodities or services purchased are:
- Agency staff
- Building consultancy and construction work
- Consultancy services
- Environmental health
- Gas and electricity
- Grounds maintenance
- Information technology
- Insurances
- Janitorial products
- Office furniture
- Office products
- Security services
- Telecommunications
- Vehicle fuels
- Vehicle hire/leasing
How do we buy?
The goods and services used by the Council are paid for with public
money, so rules are in place to make sure each stage of the
procurement process is transparent. The rules fall into five
groups:
- European procurement directives
- UK legislation
- Financial regulations of the council
- Contract and procedure rules of the council
- Policy decisions of the council
The council purchases its goods and services to its published
Terms and Conditions of Contract. Sometimes we may use industry
standard models or we may negotiate terms. However, this will be
made known when we enter the market for specific goods or
services.
What do we look for?
Purchasing decisions are extremely complex and not confined only to
price, the lowest price is not always the most suitable and may not
provide the goods or service the Council would want. Examples of
issues the Council would consider before awarding business
include:
- Fitness for purpose (quality, suitability for the task to be
undertaken etc.)
- Delivery and availability against price
- Cost of ownership
- Whole life cycle costs, including spare parts, maintenance
costs and projected down time
- On-costs (such as transport and storage)
- The cost of procurement itself
- Sustainability/environmental/corporate social
responsibility
Contact us
For more information, please
contact a member of the Purchasing team.