News / Promote Shetland contract to be re-tendered
SHETLAND Islands Council has agreed to re-tender the Promote Shetland contract after it was revealed last week that the only two bids for the service were deemed unacceptable.
The decision was made at Monday’s development committee meeting in Lerwick after the issue was added to the agenda as a matter of urgency.
The council came under fire last week after Shetland Amenity Trust, who has held the £400,000 a year contract for nearly a decade, failed to win the contract to continue to run the service.
This meant that three staff – who would have been transferred to a new employer if the other bidder had won the service – will be made redundant when the contract ends on 30 June.
The issue, along with organising a Brexit sounding board and continuing Living Lerwick arrangements, were added to the agenda just days before the meeting.
Chair Alistair Cooper called for a 15 minute adjournment to ensure members had read the documents, but Lerwick North member John Fraser said councillors needed a “fortnight” instead, because the issues were important.
Development director Neil Grant opened the Promote Shetland item by saying the “goalposts had changed” with regards to the focus of the service.
The contract specification required less focus on heritage and tourism and more on attracting people to work and invest in the isles, he said.
Council members were given two options – to re-tender the contract, or to consider options and have a report tabled on how to proceed.
Grant said he favoured the re-tendering option and stressed that arrangements would need to be made with the amenity trust to ensure that some services “remain intact” in the time between the current contract ending and the new one beginning.
It is expected that those services will largely include the Shetland.org website and social media activity.
He admitted that the tendering process may have been too short and could have benefitted from face to face interviews and presentations.
After questioning from Shetland West member Theo Smith, Grant confirmed that no councillors were involved in the decision-making process, which involved himself and two other officials.
Cooper said he was concerned there will be a “void” in the service and stressed that timescales needed to be struck quickly.
The current contract had already been extended, but the amenity trust declined another three-month transition period from 1 July.
Political leader Cecil Smith moved to re-tender the contract, with Cooper seconding.
Speaking after the meeting, Grant denied suggestions that the initial refusal of the bids was because the council wanted to take the service in-house.
In August last year, the development committee voted in favour of maintaining a “high level” of service that would be “largely outsourced”.
“I’m firmly of the view that promotion and marketing are not services that fit well with a local authority,” Grant said.
“They’re specialist services, and my view would be that the best way to achieve those services is actually to buy in specialists. There was certainly no intention to take it in house, and it’s certainly not coming in house.”
Grant added that a lack of jobs being filled in Shetland was one of the reasons why the council wants to direct the Promote Shetland service away from tourism.
“The key driver was focusing the service on targeting people to come to Shetland to work, in terms of a lot of professional jobs services that are not being filled at the moment, getting students, getting people to study, getting investment and getting small businesses,” he said.
Cooper said he thought it was the “right result” and added it was “good” that there was such a public reaction as it showed an interest in the work Promote Shetland and council has been doing.
“I trust that the second time around we get back quality tenders that we can appoint,” he said.
“That’s what we need. We need Promote Shetland to be back in business, encouraging folk to come and live and work in Shetland.”
It was confirmed, meanwhile, that the popular Wool Week event – which is due to be held later this year – was not part of the proposed Promote Shetland service and it will continue to be run by the amenity trust.
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