West Lancashire Borough Council is considering tendering a contract in relation to the Collection, Transport and Kennelling of Stray Dogs and invites expressions of interest from interested organisations by the date and in the format specified at the end of this advertisement.

This contract will be offered to enable West Lancashire Borough Council to comply with its legal responsibilities to control stray dogs.

As such, the Council is seeking a contractor to: respond to communications regarding stray dogs, catch/collect the dogs, transport them appropriately and kennel them for a period of up to and including seven days from the date of collection of each dog.

After the seven day period, the dog becomes the property of the contractor who must then consider options for re-homing.

The contract relates to communications from the Council received between 08.30 and 21.00 hrs on weekdays (excluding Bank Holidays) and for communications from the Council received between 08.00 and 20.00 on weekend days and Bank Holidays.

The contractor will be expected to have a means of receiving the request for service (and monitoring this to ensure a response) between the times specified.

The contractor will be expected to respond and arrive at the named location, (which could be anywhere in the Borough of West Lancashire), where the stray dog is/has been seen, within 1 hour of the telephone call or email being received.

They will be expected to spend up to 30 (thirty) minutes looking for the dog if it is not restrained or readily located.

For clarification - a map of West Lancashire can be accessed using the following link - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/West+Lancashire+District/@53.6106612,-3.0270319,11z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x487b160b4ea61b85:0x40cf99eed6d3540!8m2!3d53.5728525!4d-2.8558128.

The contractor must ensure that dogs can be collected by their owners/keepers (for a fixed fee) from the kennelling facility seven days a week between the hours of 09.00 and 18.00 (excluding Bank Holidays).

It is anticipated that this contract will be for a three year period (March 2019 - February 2022), with an option to extend by a further year.

The Council invites expressions of interest for this contract and these should be submitted via The Chest portal at www.the-chest.org.uk by 12 noon on Wednesday 14 March 2018.

You will need to register with The Chest if you are not registered already (this is free).

Your expression of interest document should include a brief description of your organisation and its capabilities with regard to this type of work, together with a list of customers for which you already undertake similar work.