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Bid or No Bid

A weekly read on UK tenders in utilities, streetworks, civils, telecoms, construction and renewables — including the ones you should not bid for.

Issue 2 ·

156 notices scanned · 4 worth your time

Four from 156 notices closing inside thirty days. Three of them publish how they are marked and all three put cost at 60% — one of those with a reverse auction on top. Two contain mistakes their own buyers have not spotted.

Wigan Council

Carriageway resurfacing 2026/27, bulk tender 4

Value
£572,100 ex VAT (£686,520 inc)
Term
4 months — 2 Nov 2026 to 12 Mar 2027
Region
Greater Manchester — Wigan Borough
Closes
21 Oct 2026, 12:00 · enquiries close 14 Oct, 17:00
Sector
Streetworks

Bid if

Gate
Nothing is published. No turnover threshold, no insurance level, no accreditation, no accounts requirement — the notice carries a one-line description and nothing else. Everything that decides whether you are eligible sits in the ITT on the Chest, so registering there is the first gate and the only one you can see. Below threshold, open competition, flagged as suitable for SMEs.
Fit
A local resurfacing contractor with plant already in the North West. Four and a half months from 2 November across the borough, which means winter working on live carriageway. The published description is six words long, so the number of sites, their areas and their traffic management requirements are unknown until you are through the portal.
Scoring
Price 60, Quality and Social Value 40 — and then an electronic auction. The notice states plainly that one will be used. That is the fact to hold onto: whatever you win on the 40% is settled before the auction opens, and the auction then competes you on the 60% alone. Your quality score does not improve while the bidding runs.
Price
Price the job, then set the number you will not go below, and write it down before the auction starts. A reverse auction works by removing the moment where you think about it. On a £572k scheme with winter programme risk and scope you only saw after registering, the floor is the only protection you have — the published rate becomes the rate you deliver at for four months.
Verdict
Bid if you already resurface in Greater Manchester, you are on the Chest, and you have a floor price you will not go under in the auction. Walk when it hits that number.

North East Lincolnshire Borough Council

St Ives Crescent SuDS and parking

Value
£750,000 ex VAT (£900,000 inc)
Term
4 months — 4 Jan to 21 May 2027
Region
North East Lincolnshire — Grimsby
Closes
27 Oct 2026, 12:00 · enquiries close 21 Oct, 16:00
Sector
Civils

Bid

Gate
The buyer asks for a principal contractor, so CDM duties come with the job and you need the competence and the systems to hold them. Beyond that the notice publishes no turnover threshold, no insurance level and no accreditation — those are in the ITT on YORtender, which is a registration in its own right. Below threshold, open competition, SME-suitable.
Fit
Terraced basins, permeable tarmac parking, swales and rain gardens through a residential street, doing three jobs at once: cutting surface water flooding, adding parking and improving road safety. That is drainage and groundworks with a public realm finish, in a live street with residents either side. A regional civils contractor with SuDS on its record, not a highways resurfacing firm and not a landscaper.
Scoring
Cost 60, and the remaining 40 is split six ways: Knowledge and Skills 10, Social Value and Carbon Reduction 10, Method Statement 8, Stakeholder Management 5, Programme 3.5, Programme Narrative 3.5. That is the most honestly constructed scoring in this issue. Nothing is hidden in a single lumped quality score, and a firm that writes well can see exactly where the marks are and go and get them.
Price
£750k over four and a half months starting in January, which puts the basins and permeable surfacing into the wettest part of the year on a scheme whose whole purpose is water. The programme carries 7% of the marks across two separate questions, which tells you the buyer already knows that. Price the winter working and say so in the narrative rather than hoping nobody asks.
Verdict
Bid. The best-constructed tender in the window — quality split across six named questions means a well-written submission actually moves the score, and 40% is winnable against cost at 60%.

Thanet District Council

Bus shelter replacement programme

Value
£1.5m
Term
20 weeks from January 2027
Region
Kent — Thanet district
Closes
28 Oct 2026, 14:00 · enquiries close 14 Oct, 14:00
Sector
Streetworks

No bid

Gate
Everything that matters is in the ITT on the Kent Business Portal — the notice publishes no threshold, no insurance level and no accreditation. It does publish its clarification deadline twice, and the two do not agree: the structured field says 14 October 2026 at 14:00, the body text says 14.00hrs on 14/10/1016. The intent is obvious, but a notice whose own dates disagree is worth a clarification question in itself.
Fit
Read the scope and this is a manufacturer's contract, not a contractor's. One package covers site surveys, DDA-compliant modular design, manufacture, highway permits, installation, electrical connections and footway reinstatement across roughly ninety locations. The CPV confirms it — this is filed under transport equipment, not construction work. A civils firm would be subcontracting the thing the contract is actually for.
Scoring
Not published. The notice says evaluation will be on the criteria and methodology set out in the ITT and leaves it there. You register on the Kent Business Portal to find out what you are being marked on, which means committing time before you can judge whether the submission is winnable.
Price
Ninety sites in twenty weeks is four and a half sites a week, every week, through February and March — and each one needs a highway permit, an electrical connection where required and the footway put back. The programme is the risk, not the shelters. Nothing in the notice says what happens if permits run slow, because nothing in the notice says anything about the terms at all.
Verdict
No bid. Ninety sites in twenty weeks, bundling design, manufacture, highway permits, electrical connections and footway reinstatement — with the award criteria unpublished. You are pricing a programme you cannot see the marking for.

Maidstone Borough Council

General and principal bridge inspections

Value
Published as £0 — see below
Term
6 years — 27 Nov 2026 to 26 Nov 2032
Region
Kent — Maidstone
Closes
23 Oct 2026, 12:00 · enquiries close 16 Oct, 12:00
Sector
Civils

Bid if

Gate
This is a services contract, not works, so the bidder is a structures inspection practice rather than a contractor. Inspections are to CS 450, which replaced BD 63/17, and the notice names both — so the standard is the capability gate even though no accreditation is listed. Nothing else is published: no turnover, no insurance, no accounts. Kent Business Portal, reference S27XH9M7DP.
Fit
Maidstone owns several pedestrian and vehicular bridges needing a general inspection every two years and a principal inspection every six. Over a six-year term that is three rounds of generals and one full round of principals. A specialist inspection firm with CS 450 experience and access equipment — or, given the VCSE flag alongside the SME one, a small practice the council expects to be local.
Scoring
Cost 60, Quality 40, and no further breakdown. Award decision is estimated for 16 November, three and a half weeks after the deadline. With cost at 60% on a six-year rate and no published volume, the cost answer is the whole contest.
Price
The notice publishes the total value as £0 excluding and £0 including VAT, and in the same breath says the contract is above the relevant threshold. Both cannot be true. Nowhere does it say how many bridges there are, which is the number you need to turn a rate into a price. Ask before 16 October — if the bridge stock is not disclosed you are holding a rate for six years against a volume the buyer has not told you.
Verdict
Bid if you inspect structures to CS 450 and can hold a rate for six years. The published £0 means you are bidding blind on volume, so ask before the 16 Oct deadline.

Notices are taken from Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, both free and public. The assessment beside each one is our own opinion and is not procurement advice — always read the notice and the tender documents yourself before committing.

Need the submission written properly? That is what DCD & Sons does.

Issue 2 — 6 October 2026 — Bid or No Bid