A four-month-long procurement process has chosen innovative suppliers for council maintenance services.

The new contracts, which take effect from 1 July, will mean local maintenance services are more streamlined, with enhanced outcomes and better value for money.

Suppliers fall into three contract types:

• Full Facilities (parks, open spaces and building maintenance)
• Arboriculture Services (tree maintenance)
• Ecological Services (restoration, biodiversity, pest control).

These new contracts will cover the whole Auckland region, but are structured in service areas aligned with local board boundaries. The council will continue to manage local suppliers on Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands, due to their unique characteristics, through its Community Facilities department.

The suppliers

City Care (Full Facilities contract) - City Care is a leading provider of maintenance and management services across New Zealand's built environment. They have expertise in maintaining parks, gardens, sports fields, cemeteries, waterways and coastal areas, buildings and public facilities, roading networks and water, wastewater and stormwater networks. They are well-established in Auckland and are an incumbent provider to Auckland Council.

Wildlands (Ecological Services contract) – Wildlands is a New Zealand ecological firm who provide specialist skills and project implementation in relation to ecology; biodiversity; ecological restoration and revegetation; survey and monitoring; assessments of ecological effects; environmental monitoring; indigenous flora and fauna; exotic pest plants and animals and wetland restoration.

Treescape – (Arboriculture Services and Ecological Services contract) – Treescape is an established New Zealand ecological firm who has a reputable track record providing specialist skills and project implementation in a vast number of areas. Treescape are the largest arboriculture provider in New Zealand and have a large resource pool available to them.

Urban Maintenance Systems (UMS) (Full Facilities contract) – UMS is a facilities and infrastructure maintenance and management provider with a strong, almost exclusive, focus on local government. Primarily working in Australia, UMS has already established a small footprint in Christchurch and Wellington and is expanding its operations in New Zealand.

Ventia (Full Facilities contract) – Ventia is an infrastructure service company in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific specialising in long-term operation, maintenance and management of critical public and private assets and infrastructure with a focus on safety and sustainability. The company is well established within Auckland, with nearly 200 office-based staff, 600 field workers and 500 subcontractors within the Auckland region.

City Park Services (Full Facilities and Arboriculture contract) – City Park Services are a division of Auckland Council and provide a full range of cost-effective and innovative services to maintain streetscapes, parks, sport fields, public spaces and other open space environments across the Auckland region. Services range from asset management to wetland restoration and weed control.

Under the current contract model there are seventeen suppliers operating across the region, eight of which are overseas owned.

A new approach

Rod Sheridan, General Manager Community Facilities, says that with all of council’s current maintenance contracts expiring on 30 June this year, the time was right to go out to market and identify innovative suppliers that could provide better value for money and better local services for Aucklanders.

“Our current suppliers do a great job delivering the requirements of the contracts in place at the moment. This process has been about creating a new, bolder maintenance model that helps position Auckland as one of the best performing cities in the world.”

“The absolute priority throughout the procurement phase was securing suppliers that met our demands of value for money for ratepayers, efficiency and innovation. As such, suppliers were not evaluated based on prior history as incumbents with Auckland Council, or country of origin, but rather their ability to deliver the desired outcomes.”

“Throughout the procurement process we looked at how suppliers could meet our requirements to deliver the most cost-effective solutions, reduce duplication of services, embrace world leading and emerging technology and introduce new social and environmental targets for management and maintenance of our assets and spaces, among other things. We found that in the six successful suppliers.”

“With the process efficiencies and increased levels of service we estimate that the added value in delivering these improvements under the new contracts is in the vicinity of $30 million per year.”

Local focus ramps up

Sheridan adds that council staff are working with suppliers to ensure that enhanced services are incorporated into the contract funding, rather than tapping Local Board funding, as much as possible.

“We are looking forward to workshops with all 21 Local Boards in May where we will finalise their local asset lists, ascertain their local maintenance priorities for the next year and identify and agree any site-specific requirements that may require enhanced service levels.

"We will also work with them at that time to set smart procurement targets and supplier key performance indicators (KPIs) for localised outcomes, including employment. In June the Local Boards will meet with the new suppliers start their new partnerships.

"On the whole this is a great example of how we are making our size work and remaining committed to local results,” says Sheridan.

“We’re committed to a smooth transition for all involved and right now we are working hard on the mobilisation process which includes finalising legal contracts, defining health and safety requirements and setting up reporting and auditing processes.”

“We sincerely thank all of our outgoing suppliers for their dedication to Auckland Council, and to Aucklanders, over the course of their contracts and we look forward to working with new and returning suppliers from July.”