Council issues £500k+ tender against backdrop of shared legal service talks

Details: 17.Sep.2012

Daventry District Council has launched a tender for a legal services contract worth more than half a million pounds, but has admitted that the procurement could be affected by talks with other councils about a possible shared services arrangement.

The local authority said the £564,000 contract for providing legal advice and guidance to its departments would run from 1 April 2013 for a period of three years. There will be an option to extend for a further two years.

Daventry revealed that it was “undertaking a parallel investigation with this procurement into the possibility of a shared legal services arrangement with neighbouring councils”.

It therefore reserved the right not to award any contract at the end of the procurement process.

More information on the invitation to tender can be obtained here.

Two other district councils in the Midlands – Ashfield and Mansfield – announced last month that they would be establishing a shared legal service.

The service will become operation from the end of September and be based in Ashfield's offices in Kirkby-in-Ashfield.