Decision details

Ipswich Borough Council requires to undertake additional groundwater monitoring at the Eastern Gateway site in line with the Environmental Agencies requirements.

IBC has previously engaged a consultant to carry out this and other work and has decided to appoint the existing contractor, Geosphere Ltd., to undertake further groundwater monitoring on parts of the Eastern Gateway site following their earlier detailed investigations and advice. This work has been requested directly by the Environmental Agency based upon Geosphere’s investigations to date, primarily to establish any seasonal variations in ground water conditions.

The monitoring is fundamental to help reach an agreed remediation strategy for the site with the Environmental Agency and thereby further development on the site.

This decision to award a contract to Geosphere, valued at £30,365.00, covers the continuation of groundwater monitoring, technical analysis and reporting, and further consultation with the Environment agency. The project team consider this to be good value for money and the work would be funded from existing capital budgets.

This has been exempted from Contract standing orders due to urgency and the work already undertaken by Geosphere, which will enable a rapid delivery of the work and reduced risk to the project.

If the exemption had not been approved then a procurement exercise would need to be carried out which was likely to result in increased costs and increased risk to the project due to programme delays and / or loss of technical knowledge.

The exemption is in place from 30th August 2021 until the monitoring requirements from the Environment agency are satisfied (2023).