To appoint Eunomia Research and Consulting Ltd to provide further financial advice and finance related support in respect of the waste and recycling collection and street cleaning services contract procurement. Specifically, Eunomia will provide support around answering bidder clarification questions, attend competitive dialogue discussions related to the pricing schedule, payment mechanism and recycling risk share model. They will also assist in calculating each bidder’s total price and provide financial robustness testing should it be required. The appointment follows on from the work Eunomia have already undertaken since their original appointment in August 2024 and advice from the Council’s procurement partner, Essex County Council, is that continued specialist consultancy support is required.
Eunomia’s original core cost for their service was £8,331.25 and this was to prepare a contract payment mechanism and pricing schedule. Additional work was required including provision of significant advice on recycling risk share, amendments to the pricing schedule in response to the evolution of the Council’s approach to recycling risk share, the creation of a price evaluation framework, and an explanatory video to accompany the pricing schedule. This additional work was then charged at the day rates agreed bringing the total spent to £15,564. The further working being commissioned now is estimated to total £20,950 based on day rates. This total does include an optional element of work that may not be required if the bids received are of a good quality – financial robustness testing at £7,000. Not including this work reduces the total additional work to approximately £14,000. It may be possible to further reduce costs if Eunomia are not required at any dialogue sessions with the bidders.

To appoint Eunomia Research and Consulting to provide further support to the Council as part of the waste and recycling service procurement.

The alternative option considered is to not commission further support from Eunomia. This would present some risk to the Council as specialist support would not be in place to provide a robust and informed analysis of the bids received.