Ards and North Down Borough Council has a statutory responsibility to provide sufficient burial provision to meet the present and future needs of the Borough. The Council is progressing a Cemetery Provision project to secure long-term burial capacity through the extension of an existing provision, and the development of a new cemetery site capable of serving the Borough’s needs for the next 30+ years. Council is progressing the acquisition of a new cemetery site of approximately 24 acres. This site will need to be developed from RIBA Stage 0. The Cemetery Provision project also includes an extension to an existing Council cemetery of 0.95 hectares, for which planning approval is currently being sought. The ICT may be required to provide detailed design input for this site and support the development of any future extension proposals arising during the appointment. The scope of the ICT is not finalised at this stage and is subject to change at the Council’s discretion. Anticipated Project Deliverables For the new site; • RIBA Stages 0-7 including; • Planning approval and statutory consents for the proposed new cemetery development. • Design and development of a new cemetery facility to meet the Borough's future burial needs for the next 30+ years. • Construction and commissioning of a fully operational cemetery, including associated infrastructure and facilities. • Operational handover of the completed facility to the Council. For the existing site; • Detailed design input into extension of an existing cemetery site. • Potential design and development of future extension of an existing cemetery site. The purpose of this preliminary market engagement is to seek feedback and insights from experienced suppliers to help shape the scope for the appointment of a multi-disciplinary Consultancy Team.

Procurement Act 2023

The Council's intention is to commence a competitive tender process under the Procurement Act 2023 through eTendersNI. Interested suppliers will not be advantaged or prejudiced by participation or non-participation in the pre-market engagement. Participation or non-participation in this PME exercise will not prevent any supplier from participating in any future procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process. In accordance with section 82 of the Procurement Act 2023, the Council will take all reasonable steps to ensure that no conflict of interest puts any supplier at an unfair advantage or disadvantage in relation to this procurement. To ensure a level playing field for all parties and without breaching commercial confidentiality, all relevant information shared or gathered during this engagement will be made available to all potential suppliers as part of the forthcoming competitive tender process. This market engagement process does not commit the Council to any course of action and is not a formal part of the tender process that will follow. Suppliers who wish to participate in the market engagement exercise should complete the PME questionnaire which can be downloaded from the CfT documents area of Resource ID 6790076 on eTendersNI (https://etendersni.gov.uk). The questionnaire must be completed and returned via the CfT's Messaging area on eTendersNI in accordance with the instructions detailed in the PME Questionnaire document. There are no formal tender documents to be completed other than the questionnaire. **Please Note: All completed questionnaires must be submitted via the CfT's (Resource ID 6790076) messaging area on eTendersNI (https://etendersni.gov.uk)**