Stourport firm gets slice of county council contracts (From Worcester News)

Stourport firm gets slice of county council contracts

A STOURPORT construction firm has been boosted by the offer of a slice of Worcestershire County Council's major property contracts over the next four years.

Top contract: Tony Hyde, managing director, shaking hands with councillor Stephen Clee, with Andrew Peasgood from the county council's principal architect and members of the Thomas Vale team.

Earlier this year the county council, along with its partners, launched its contractor framework and invited firms from across the country to bid to get on board.

Following a tendering process, Stourport's Thomas Vale Construction, one of the Midlands’ largest privately owned companies, was confirmed on the list.

The contractor framework sees the authority's property contracts over £1 million in value being shared between three firms.

Thomas Vale has been joined by Kier Moss in Cheltenham and Malvern's Speller Metcalfe in securing its place on the framework.

The three firms will stay on for four years before the framework contract goes back out to tender.

According to the county council, the building of four new Wyre Forest primary schools will be among the first projects awarded to the firms in the framework - Stourport Primary, Offmore Primary, St Catherine's Primary and St Georges Primary.

A spokesman for the county council added: “The financial climate will, inevitably, impact upon the amount of work we do. However, it is too early to know the details of how we might be affected.”

The framework will be available to all public sector organisations within the West Midlands and West Mercia Police Authority and Herefordshire Council are already partners.

Conservative, Stephen Clee, county council cabinet member for corporate services, said: "The contractor framework brings a range of benefits.

“For the three firms, it gives them added security of knowing they will be delivering their share of big county council property contracts.

“For the county council, it delivers significant savings in procurement costs, ensures early contractor engagement in projects, more timely and efficient programme delivery, reduced overall construction costs and greater predictability of outcomes."

The criteria for selecting contractors was, in part, on price but also on the quality of their staff and other resources, the quality of their delivery of the management and construction of building projects, their approach to health and safety and their ability to add value to building projects.

Tony Hyde, managing director of Thomas Vale Construction, said: "This framework will secure and create hundreds of jobs across the region, as well as providing other local supply chain partners with a continued workload in order to secure the economic status of the area."