Decision details

The Cabinet meeting of the 9^th May 2024 approved the County Council's 2024/25 Transport Programme, funded by the Department for Transport's Integrated Transport Grant totalling £6.592m, which included a £0.4m allocation for Accrington Railway Station.

A draft Development Services Agreement has been produced by Network Rail in respect of continuing design development of the Accrington Railway Station Access for All scheme. The scheme will ultimately create better connections between platforms and the main station building and will increase accessibility to a wider range of destinations for a wider range of rail passengers.

The preferred method of delivery for this stage of the project is for Network Rail to undertake design development and associated project management activities via a direct award, given the interaction and close proximity of the project to the operational railway.

This follows the approach taken by the county council on the Burnley Manchester Road and Cottam Parkway railway station projects where direct contract awards were made to Network Rail for design development activities.

It is proposed that this stage of the project be delivered by Network Rail under a standard Direct Services Agreement and under Network Rail's Project Acceleration in a Controlled Environment (PACE) process. It was originally envisaged that Network Rail undertake design activities to the end of ES4 (single option development stage) but they have been unable to resource this within financial year 2024/25.

Network Rail's internal staff and framework contractors will be used to deliver the project's design package. Network Rail's frameworks have been competitively tendered to comply with procurement legislation and assessed on value for money with mandatory ‘gateway’ standards pertaining to safety and engineering.

The completion of this stage of design activities totalling c.£50k (PACE Phase 1, Engineering Stage 3 Option Selection) will be used to inform bids for future funding to enable scheme delivery and will: 

-  Conclude the Option Selection phase of design

-  Complete site surveys including mining risk assessment, signal sighting, structural, drainage and topographical surveys 

-  Produce an ES3 stage validation procurement strategy and requirements document 

-  Provide an indicative estimated cost and programme for the next ES4 – 5 single option and detailed design stages

Funding for the project has been set up within the County Council's financial system within PPMS ID 15348.

The Director of Highways and Transport, in consultation with the Head of Procurement, took the decision to;

(i)  Approve the progression of the Accrington Railway Station Access for All project design package with Network Rail to a value of circa £50,000.

(ii)  Approve a waiver of the county council's procurement rules as set out at paragraph 12 of the Procurement Rules, to allow a direct award of a contract (via a Development Services Agreement) to be made to Network Rail to enable Network Rail to deliver the next stage of design development.