We are inviting owners of land suitable for the development or operation of a new cemetery for the Lisburn and Castlereagh area to indicate to us the availability of land with appropriate planning and other relevant statutory consents and a willingness to sell/lease this land to council. We are carrying out this process in order to identify the range of available lands and shortlist those which are most likely to be in a position to meet our requirements.
Our existing cemetery provision owned and managed by the council will need to be increased and has identified future cemetery provision needs. On average we require 200 new grave plots per annum to meet its requirements. On that basis we are required to purchase, lease or make use of appropriate lands fulfilling the following criteria.
Specification of requirements
The land being proposed must:
- be located within or suitably adjacent to the Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council area
- be of sufficient size, a minimum of 5 hectares (or 12.5 acres), to accommodate a minimum of 5,000 grave plots (immediately or in a phased basis)
- have full planning permission for the development of a minimum of 5,000 grave plots in place or that a planning application can be submitted which is likely to receive planning approval
- be land which is in the ownership of the individual, company or public body, with no restrictive covenants in place that will adversely impact on the operation or use of the site
- have a landowner willing to sell the land to the council or make it available to it to construct and operate as a cemetery on a long lease up to a minimum of 999 years.
We are open to any suggested subregional solution and may therefore enter into a partnership with others should any offering in the market suggest that there is capacity for such an approach.
An Expression of Interest shall only be accepted if it is:
- received before the closing date for this competition
- complete and fully compliant with the requirements detailed above.
How your Expression of Interest will be assessed
The purpose of this exercise is to identify a number of applicants who are eligible for consideration in respect of the proposed venture. In order for an applicant to be considered qualified for consideration by the council, it must confirm its eligibility for consideration and meet a number of minimum standards.
This assessment will be on a pass/fail basis, using the following scoring methodology.
| Pass |
The applicant has fully demonstrated its ability to meet the specification of requirements |
| Fail |
The applicant has failed to sufficiently demonstrate its ability to meet the specification of requirements |
Applicants must not make assumptions that we have prior knowledge of their organisation or their service provision. Expressions of Interest will only be assessed on the information provided in submissions.
Following assessment of all Expressions of Interest, a shortlist of eligible applicants (made up of those tenderers who have met all the minimum standards) will be prepared and the council may decide to follow a procurement process. This would comprise a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and Invitation to Tender and be issued to the shortlist of applicants who have passed all the requirements of this EOI.
The award criteria, against which any tender proposals will be evaluated, will be detailed in the Invitation to Tender if it is decided to follow this process.
Queries
Please contact Alan Gowdy, Estate Manager by email at alan.gowdy@lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk if you require any clarification.
Closing date
Expressions of interest should be completed and returned electronically by Friday 20 December 2024.
Application form