Issue - meetings

The Director of Regeneration submitted a report which sought approval to publish a VEAT notice of the Council’s intention to award a 5 year contract with Clear Channel for Bus Shelter Maintenance and Advertising, as the current contract has been extended a number of times and a long-term agreement was required to provide both guaranteed maintenance of the shelters and income for advertising.

The decision required a decision as the proposal would require the publication of a VEAT notice, the award of a contract and given that more than two wards will be effected, an Executive Member decision is, therefore required to allow the scheme to be taken forward to the implementation stage.

The report outlined that Middlesbrough Council was contracted with Clear Channel to deliver the Street Furniture, which includes the delivery and maintenance of 154 non-advertising shelters, 154 advertising bus shelters and 10 freestanding units across the town at no cost to the Council in relation to staffing or maintenance.

Clear Channel own all the shelters and purchased them as part of the original contract award and are fully responsible for all advertising, repair, maintenance and replacement.  The contract was initially set up by Cleveland County Council, with an update taking place in 2001 by Middlesbrough Council.  The contract nets the Council an income of £50,000 (plus RPI) per annum, which is currently equating to approximately £60,000.  Clear Channel value the current asset range at £2.20 million and would remove all shelters if the contract was not continued.

The report advised that in 2018 this contract was reviewed by Methods Consultants advising that the current contract was not achieving the income it should and as part of that process other added value benefits that Middlesbrough Council receives were highlighted and equated to approximately £231,000 details as follows:

a.     £50 000 - Annual Income

b.     £57 200 - Free advertising

c.      £18 130 - 49% retention of business rates

d.     £53 000 - Saving from maintenance costs advertising

e.     £53 000 – Saving from maintenance costs of non-advertising shelters

The Council has had to extend the current contract a number of times and there was a long-standing ambition to create a Tees Valley contract to ensure that all bus shelters and information were unified across the region.  Middlesbrough was to be the lead authority for the procurement, with some capital investment from TVCA to ensure the region would be in a stronger position in terms of capital ownership of the shelters. 

This approach had been supported by the Tees Valley Transport and Advisory Group (TAG) and was underway when the pandemic forced all parties to extend their respective arrangements due to any future advertising contract being significantly reduced to flexible / home working and lower footfall in town centres.

Whilst the Council had not been able to secure an agreement from Clear Channel to increase income, it was still believed that as result of lockdown easing, that the advertising market would return to previous levels.  As a result, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3