County outlines measures to do business with local firms

Denbighshire County Council says it is working to make local trades people and suppliers aware of the opportunities to provide goods and services to the authority.

Following a discussion on the issue at the recent full council meeting, Llangollen councillor Stuart Davies asked a senior officer to outline exactly what the council was doing to highlight the opportunities to businesses in the county.

In a reply to Cllr Davies, Stuart Andrews, the council’s acting strategic procurement manager sent him the following reply:  

1. We are working very closely with Business Wales to promote opportunities via their Business advisors, and have recently had a very well attended "Meet the Buyer" workshop here in Ruthin attended by approximately 25 local construction companies.
2. Business Wales hold regular "How to Tender" workshops around the County to help small businesses in becoming more efficient in the tender processes. The CPS attend these to provide additional practical guidance.
3. We are in the process of upgrading the Procurement page on Denbighshire's website to have a page there which identifies current contracts along with the expiry dates so that local businesses are more aware of when opportunities are likely to be forthcoming.
4. We actively promote to all local businesses that want to do business with us the following websites where we advertise opportunities. Sell2wales.co.uk and https://www.proactisplaza.com/?cid=DCC. Both of these sites are free of charge for any business to register on. When businesses are registered the system will send notification by email of opportunities that are available to bid for to all registered companies.
5. We are currently re-structuring our tendering documentation in the e-Sourcing solution for smaller value opportunities to make the requirement for the submission of policies, insurances etc less bureaucratic by only asking businesses if they have the relevant documentation. We will then only ask the winning bidder to provide it on the award of any contract.
6. Where we ask questions in the e-Sourcing solution all answers provided by suppliers are stored securely in their own library for future use. This will allow suppliers to re-use the stored information rather than having to complete a new quotation or tender every time they receive a request.

Cllr Davies said: “I would like the council to be more pro-active in this important area and I will pass on all relevant information I receive to local businesses.”