Decision details

The Council has a 5-year vending contract with Cafepoint which is an income generation contract at no cost to the Council and sees the Council get a percentage return on all vending sales from the Company.

In March 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic forced the closure of all sports facilities and again in December 2020. The risk assessments put in place to ensure the safe usage of facilities when they reopened didn’t allow for vending machines to be used due to their location and impacts on one-way flows and touchpoints. Vending machines came back in operation in September 2021 and the contract is coming to an end.

A decision has been made to extend the contract for a period of 15 months to September 2023, which is the period of time when vending machines were not in operation due to an unforeseeable event (the Covid-19 pandemic). This extension will be under the existing contract terms.

This extension is justified upon the basis that it is permitted by Regulation 72(1)(c ) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and under PPN 01/20 which was adopted by the Cabinet Office in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This proposed extension meets all three of the criteria under Regulation 72(1)(c ) PCR one of the so called “Safe Harbours” which are as follows:

(i) the need for modification has been brought about by circumstances which a diligent Contracting

Authority could not have foreseen;

(ii) the modification does not alter the overall nature of the contract:

(iii) any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract.

to extend the contract for a period of 15 months to September 2023, which is the period of time when vending machines were not in operation due to an unforeseeable event (the Covid-19 pandemic). This extension will be under the existing contract terms.

Reason:

To enable the vending machines to remain in operation at the sports facilities.