2022

COM0025 – Christmas Markets Contractor and Procurement Exercise – 080422

This APSE Member council is looking to undertake a procurement exercise to appoint an external contractor to operator a Christmas market in the city each year. It is intended that the market would be located on the grounds of the City Hall, owned by the Council.

In previous similar procurement exercises, they asked contractors to provide the following financial contributions (each year):

• A minimum financial contribution - £75K per Christmas market, as set by the Council.
• % of Trader Pitch Fees – bidders were asked to offer this % as part of their tender submission.

They would appreciate any information from local authorities that have appointed an external contractor to operator markets on their land. This may include:-

• How long was the contract for?
• Did you include: (i) a minimum financial contribution and/or (ii) a % of trader pitch fees? Or something else?
• If so, do you have a methodology for calculating what the fees (the minimum contribution and/or the percentage) might be?
• Did you ask contractors to increase their financial contribution each year?

COM0024 – Provision of free public Wi-FI outside of City Centres – 250222

The APSE member council is currently exploring the provision of free public Wi-Fi outside of the main City Centre such as local town centres or High Streets.
They would like to hear from any Councils that have implemented similar solutions and are particularly keen to discuss the scale of the implementation, how and when it was implemented and whether it is/was a success.