[Moderator David@stives]

Do you know who to contact at the council offices to enquire about window cleaning tenders.

I phoned them and asked for a contracts manager.
They did not have a clue ,so they put me through to one departement and they said not us .so i got passed on again.
Anyhow after 30 mins i ended up in repairs.
Then i just gave up and will try tommorrow.

Who do ask for  ??

[P @ F]

David , my neighbor works in the counil offices , she knows everything , if i can catch her in the morning 7.30 i will post on this thread OK

 Rich  P @ F

[DP]

You need an application form to be added to the approved contractors list. This is a generic form applying to most trades, and certainly with London Borough’s you have a right to apply.

Each council will have their own criteria for acceptance.

Some offices may advise you that the list is closed for the year but will still send you the application form for next year. Others will not release the form until the list is reopened.

Some may ask you a number of questions by way of filtering prior to sending the forms. Many will have a procurement officer or department/office set up for this.

They will all normally require a minimum provable account period and usually a high Public liability threshold. Getting on a list does not guarantee work.

I do know that the approved contractors list with many councils has become a subject of debate and under policy review.

Be warned, the council should be treated as a company, if the money runs out, YOU WILL NOT GET PAID as many London contractors have discovered over the years.

[dave0123]

I also rang my local council the other week for information on tenders and getting on the list etc, they said to me i need to register with construction online.co.uk

To me it looks like a site for construction eg like building new buildings i said this to the person on the telephone but still everything goes through them so i dont no! I no a big firm in my area i used to work for that do work for housing companys the work they do is 100% commerical nurshing homes old peoples homes etc places like chester zoo iv done that a few times myself. Am sure the owner of this company didnt go through this sort of stuff to win contracts. if only i asked when working with them to gain information :

Dave

[Moderator David@stives]

Thanks for the replies

 but who do i ask for.

I know the ins and outs just need to know which department to ask for.

iwill have a look at constructiononline  thanks

[DP]

All council offices will operate differently, some will have just a procurement officer, some will have an entire office.

Its very difficult for anybody to answer, its simply a matter of asking the right questions until a light bulb goes off in somebody’s head on the other end of a phone.

All councils will have this facility its just finding out what they have called it and where it is, it could be embedded in a number of departments such as

Quantity surveyors
Street Cleansing
Borough Surveyors and/or Maintenance
HR and/or Procurement dept
Contracts and /or Facilities
Director of finance dept
etc etc

It may even be fragmented across departments based on type of service, or completely contracted out to an agency.

Just persevere and you WILL get there eventually. The question has to be “Who maintains the approved contractors list"?

The only alternative is if someone has already done the legwork with your particular council office and can advise.

[Moderator David@stives]

Dp

 thanks i did not bother today after testerdays escapade but i have all day tommorrow so may get the right departement by 4.00pm   ..the funny thing is i already clean for some of there buildings but have been contacted direct from the various buildings and even they cant point me to the right department.

i clean a council run ,day centre ,3 schools , a nursery etc all direct but i know they still put some work out for tender

[martindrz400]

when pricing for council work work is only done on a4or 6 month rotor so will take longer to clean make sure prices are high enough