Nottingham City Council has approved spending of £280,000 on a new scaffolding contract to support maintenance and emergency work across its district heating network.
It covers a four-year contract for scaffolding services at London Road Heat Station and across the wider District Heating Network. The contract will run on a two-year term with two possible one-year extensions.
The council says the contract is needed to replace the current interim arrangement and ensure the service complies with Contract Procedure Rules. The spending will come from revenue funding.
London Road Heat Station is described in the decision report as a high-risk, safety-critical operational energy facility involving high-pressure steam systems, high-voltage electrical infrastructure and constrained plant environments.
The district heating network supplies heat and hot water to buildings in Nottingham, and the council says safe access to plant and equipment is needed to maintain operational continuity, carry out statutory maintenance and comply with health and safety law.
Scaffolding is used for planned maintenance, reactive works and emergency breakdown response. The report says this work can be needed at short notice and must be integrated with permit-to-work systems, isolation procedures and control room processes.
The current arrangement includes a site-based scaffolder, giving the council ongoing availability and rapid response capability. Although scaffolding work itself is intermittent, the report says there is still a continuous need for safe and responsive access within a live operational plant.
The council will now run a compliant tender process, asking bidders to price and propose two possible delivery models. One would involve site-based provision, with on-site availability, while the other would operate on an ad-hoc or call-off basis, responding when needed.
The authority has not committed in advance to either model. It says it may choose one option or select a hybrid or optimised solution after evaluating bids. Submissions will be assessed on cost, responsiveness, operational resilience and risk.
The council says this approach is intended to avoid over-specifying the service, which could increase costs through a permanent presence, while also avoiding under-specifying responsiveness if a call-off-only model cannot meet operational needs.
The procurement will also proceed on the basis that TUPE may apply. TUPE rules can protect employees when services transfer between providers. The report says there is a credible risk because the current arrangement includes a site-based scaffolder, although it adds that only one individual is involved, scaffolding activity is not continuous and some duties fall outside the core scaffolding service. Bidders will be expected to assess and price that risk.
The council says the procurement will be progressed immediately, with tender documents developed and reviewed before issue. The aim is for the contract to be awarded and mobilised before 30 September 2026, with transition managed to avoid disruption to operational service delivery.
The decision is classed as operational because its value is below the £300,000 threshold and is consistent with previous operational compliance decisions.
