Home · Other sample · Sample memo D

This is a sample of the £9.99 public-notice product, date-stamped 2 September 2026. Deadline on the notice: 4 September 2026, 12:00 BST — two working days from this memo. The notice demands HERS and CFA registration in the tender evidence, and yearly testing “by a CFA registered company”. Insurance limits, turnover multiples, evaluation weightings and anything else that lives only in the attached PDF are Unknown. BidFit did not open Contract Tender 2027 (3 years).pdf.

1. Verdict in 8 lines

1. Profile A (tickets held): cautious Go, 54/100. A Herts / Essex festive-lighting Ltd that already holds HERS and CFA, already works on highway electrical / Christmas lighting, can store assets, and can email by Friday noon, is in the published market. The clock is the drag, not the tickets.
2. Profile B (tickets missing): No-go, 18/100. The notice requires “evidence that the company is HERS and CFA registered” and yearly testing “by a CFA registered company” (notice). That is Pass/Fail. It is not Unknown. It is not a maybe.
3. Deadline 4 September 2026, 12:00 BST from a 2 September 2026 memo is two working days. St Helier (live hospital LV, same Friday noon) was No-go 34 because of survey/design risk. This is festive lights, email, 2027 start — different risk, still a brutal clock. 54 is a cautious Go, not a 70.
4. The public specification is thicker than Hull’s gutter blurb. The asset schedule is on the notice (nine crossroads, nine feature trees, one Christmas tree, 36 column wraps, 70 stag heads, two set pieces). Pack-only items remain Unknown.
5. Value is a band (£30,000–£90,000) against a three-year term from 1 August 2027. Not labelled VAT. Price the pack, not the midpoint.
6. Submission is email to the council, not a portal. That lowers friction versus In-Tend / MultiQuote. It does not extend Friday noon.
7. No published incumbent. The 2024 predecessor FestiveLights24 closed with awards: [] (section 4). Do not invent a supplier.
8. 678 views on a town-council festive-lights job with a two-day remaining window means you are not the only specialist who saw it on 14 August. A rushed Friday email still has to look like a priced, certificated, referenced bid.

2. What this contract actually is (plain English)

Hertford Town Council is buying a three-year festive-lights installation and maintenance service for the town’s own assets. The published term runs 1 August 2027 to 31 July 2030. The published value is £30,000 to £90,000. The procedure is open, below threshold. It is flagged SME-suitable, not VCSE-suitable, and it is not a framework (notice; API).

Service delivery on the notice, in the buyer’s own bullets:

• Secure and appropriate storage of all HTC Festive Lights assets.
• Installation and removal of lighting.
• Structural testing including pull testing.
• Electrical testing including testing of lighting and power supply locations.
• Repairs and maintenance of infrastructure and power supplies.
• Provision of all necessary paperwork including insurances and RAMS.
• Assistance to secure a Festive Lighting Licence with Hertfordshire County Council.
• Year-round maintenance of HTC Festive Lights assets.
• 24-hour contact for urgent repairs and emergencies.
• Emergency call-out time within a 4-hour period of notification.
• Attendance at the annual festive light switch-on, which takes place in November.

The same description then lists the kit. Nine crossroads on 6mm catenary wire with specially designed anchor plates, “to be tested yearly by a CFA registered company”, installed above a regulation height of 5.6m — five displays 5m × 1.2m and four 8m × 1.2m. Nine feature trees, each with 30 × 10m sets of warm white / white twinkle 24v SELV (100 LED lights per set), installed along the branches (not wrapped) on expandable rubber-band straps. One Christmas tree with 30 × 10m warm-white 24v SELV sets plus mixed metal stags, baubles and fence plates. 36 column wraps (2 × 10m sets, 240v, 100 LED per set) above 2.5m. 70 metal stag heads on lit columns. Two set pieces, 24v SELV fed from above 2.5m by 230v supply (only SELV cable below 2.5m), anchor-bolted to the floor and “tested yearly by a CFA registered company using specialist testing equipment” (notice).

Tender documentation, still on the public notice, must include: a full breakdown of charges including emergency call-out fees; a statement on environmental sustainability commitments in relation to this contract; and evidence that the company is HERS and CFA registered. “ALL engineers are skilled in their job roles and have the right equipment and tools to work safely.” References: contact details of at least one relevant authority where you have done this work previously. Evidence of suitable, secure storage is required. Contractors are to provide a 24-hour call-out service with attendance on the scene within 4 hours (notice).

That is a lot for Contracts Finder. It is still not the ITT. Frequencies of install/take-down, the priced schedule, insurance limits, whether HERS/CFA certificates have a named format, and the scoring matrix sit in Contract Tender 2027 (3 years).pdf. BidFit has not opened that file.

HERS and CFA — notice wording, then a cited gloss

The notice uses the acronyms. It does not spell them out. The published phrases are: “evidence that the company is HERS and CFA registered”; “tested yearly by a CFA registered company”; and “tested yearly by a CFA registered company using specialist testing equipment” (notice).

Gloss — not the notice. The Highway Electrical Association describes HERS as the Highway Electrical Registration Scheme, which it administers. On that page, organisations working in the highway electrical sector are to be registered to HERS for compliance with National Highway Sector Scheme 8 (NHSS8); HERS cards are issued under the Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (HEA — About HERS). The Construction Fixings Association describes an Approved Tester scheme for companies that test construction fixings / anchors, with trained staff and specialist equipment (CFA Approved Testers). That matches the notice’s pull-testing / catenary / floor-anchor language. It is still a gloss. If the pack means something else by CFA, the pack wins — BidFit has not opened it.

Who the buyer is

The contracting authority on Contracts Finder is Hertford Town Council (notice). The council’s own site places it at The Castle, Hertford, Hertfordshire, SG14 1HR, describes a town council delivering allotments, cemetery and closed-churchyard maintenance, town-centre CCTV, the war memorial, and a programme of community events in the Castle grounds and town centre, and names elected members from Bengeo, Sele, Castle and Kingsmead wards acting within the parish boundary of Hertford (plus Hertingfordbury village on that page) (Council & Democracy). East Herts District Council lists it under parish and town councils, same Castle address and the same public telephone 01992 552885 (EHDC parish page). The constitution page sets out a mission adopted by Full Council in October 2023 and standing orders / constitutional documents reviewed annually by the Finance, Policy & Administration Committee (mission and constitution). The published scheme of delegation cites the Local Government Act 1972 s.101 (arrangements for discharge of functions) and s.15 (parishes — chair) (scheme of delegation; LGA 1972 s.101). No buyer company number appears on the notice. This memo did not treat a subsidiary as the contracting authority.

The council declared a Climate Emergency in July 2023 (Council & Democracy). The notice separately asks for an environmental-sustainability statement related to this contract. Those two facts sit next to each other; they are not a published scoring weight.

How you bid

Open procedure, below threshold. The description says the tender document must be returned by midday, 4th September 2026, via email to the named officer. That named officer email is redacted in this memo. Submission is by email to the council as stated on the notice, without reproducing the address. The HTML “How to apply” line only says: follow the instructions in the description or the more information section (notice). There is no portal on this notice. Use the published email route; do not invent a ProContract / In-Tend / MultiQuote path. The API clock is 12:00 BST on 4 September 2026 — do not plan to file at 12:01.

What it is not

• It is not a 2026-season install. The published start is 1 August 2027. The current public predecessor, if awarded off the 2024 notice, was written to run to 31 July 2027 (section 4). This memo does not assume that award happened.
• It is not the council’s grounds-maintenance, play-area or Castle decoration contracts (different CPVs, different references — section 4).
• It is not a framework or DPS (isFrameworkAgreement: false).
• It is not a design-and-supply of a new lighting scheme on the public notice. The kit list reads as install / test / store / maintain of HTC assets. Whether the pack adds purchase of new displays is Unknown.

3. Mandatory pass/fail table vs published requirements

Mark Unknown where Contracts Finder is silent. Do not treat “typical for festive lighting” as a published requirement. HERS and CFA are on the notice: they are Pass/Fail, not Unknown.

Read this table as: the public notice is enough to fail a firm without HERS/CFA today, and enough for a ticketed firm to know the job is storage, install, test, licence-assist, 4-hour call-out and a November switch-on. It is not enough to complete a priced ITT. Anyone selling a memo that invents a PI limit or a turnover multiple from “industry norms” is guessing. This memo does not.

4. Incumbent / last award

This contract — not found in public award data

Searched on 2 September 2026. No supplier name and no award value for festive lights at this council. Do not invent an incumbent.

Method:

1. Live notice JSON 85479893-dab0-49eb-982d-b3e12c9c6316 — awards: [], status Open (API).
2. Contracts Finder v2 POST /api/rest/2/search_notices/json with keyword FL20272030 — one hit, this notice (API docs).
3. Same API with quoted keyword "Hertford Town Council" — six notices for this buyer (table below). Festive predecessor FestiveLights24 is Closed with awards: [].
4. Keyword mixes of Hertford + festive / Christmas lights returned other councils’ lighting jobs; those are discarded where the organisation is not Hertford Town Council.

A bidder should still: open the 2027 PDF for any “current contractor” / TUPE schedule; ask a clarification by email using the (redacted) route on the notice, knowing two working days is a poor clarification window; and, after award, watch Contracts Finder for an award notice.

Predecessor tender — same buyer, same kind of work, no published award

On 23 May 2024 Hertford Town Council published Festive Lights Maintenance and Installation, buyer reference FestiveLights24, GUID a499fc86-461c-4ac5-9606-adcdf9f277bf. Status Closed. awards: []. Not withdrawn on the JSON retrieved for this memo (2024 API; 2024 HTML).

Possible public explanations (none evidenced on CF): award never published; work let off-portal; no compliant bid; the 2024 process was delayed. This memo does not pick one. The 2026 notice’s start date (1 August 2027) is the day after the 2024 notice’s published end date (31 July 2027). That is a timetable rhyme, not a named supplier.

Other Hertford Town Council notices on the same search (not this contract)

Quoted-organisation search on 2 September 2026 returned six CF notices for Hertford Town Council. All six have empty awards arrays on the JSON retrieved. They show how this buyer lets work — below-threshold, often email, SME-flagged — not who hangs the lights.

What this pattern is worth: this buyer publishes small, SME-flagged, below-threshold notices on Contracts Finder and often asks for email return, a sustainability paragraph, and references. It does not currently publish awards on those six records. That is a transparency gap, not a named festive-lights incumbent.

5. Traps on the notice (published text only)

1. Clock. Published 14 August 2026, 14:09 BST; deadline 4 September 2026, 12:00 BST (API). From this 2 September memo that is two working days (remaining Wednesday, Thursday, Friday morning). St Helier used the same Friday-noon clock as a No-go driver for a live-hospital LV board. This job is lighter. It is not three weeks from today.
2. HERS and CFA are evidence, not aspiration. “Evidence that the company is HERS and CFA registered” is in the tender-documentation paragraph, not in a “desirable” heading (notice). Profile B is a Fail before price is opened.
3. CFA appears twice. Company registration in the evidence list, and yearly testing of catenary plates and floor-bolted set pieces by a CFA registered company with specialist equipment. A HERS-only street-lighting firm that cannot test anchors is not finished.
4. £30,000–£90,000 over three years, unlabelled VAT. If you treat £90,000 as a one-year budget you will look expensive; if you treat £30,000 as the three-year ceiling you may be bidding a different job. The 2024 CF band was £0–£60,000 for a three-year term. This memo does not invent an annual rate.
5. Email, not a portal. There is no In-Tend clock to screenshot. A message that misses midday, goes to the wrong mailbox, or omits the PDF will not count. The named officer address is redacted here because it is personal; use the address on the live notice.
6. Storage is a bid item, not a courtesy. “Evidence of suitable, secure storage” is required. A van-and-garage story without evidence is a known way to fail a council lights tender. The pack will say what evidence looks like — Unknown on CF.
7. 4-hour attendance, 24-hour contact. Price the call-out fees as a line, because the notice asks for that breakdown. Do not hide them in a lump sum and hope.
8. HCC festive lighting licence. You assist; you do not skip county. The 2024 notice named Ringway as the highway-authority contractor; the 2026 notice does not. Do not paste 2024 Ringway language into a 2027 method statement unless the new pack still says it.
9. Install detail that will be scored if quality is scored. Feature-tree lights “are not to be wrapped around branches”; only SELV cable below 2.5m on the set pieces; crossroads above 5.6m; column wraps above 2.5m. A method statement that wraps trees and drops 240v below 2.5m is bidding a different specification (notice).
10. Start is 2027. You are pricing 2027–2030 labour, storage and call-out, not this November. Indexation, if any, is Unknown on CF.
11. 678 views. Quiet town-council notices still accumulate specialists. A two-day BidFit reader is late relative to 14 August, even if Profile A can physically email on Friday.
12. Pack exists and was not opened. Filename Contract Tender 2027 (3 years).pdf. Anything about scoring, TUPE, insurance limits, or additional kit is Unknown until you open it. This memo stops at the public notice.

Social value — what is not on this notice

No weighting, no apprenticeship KPI, no local-labour percentage. A related-to-this-contract sustainability statement is required. The council’s own site records a Climate Emergency declaration in July 2023 (Council & Democracy). That is context for writing a short, contract-specific paragraph, not a licence to submit a community essay the scoring matrix may not buy. Weighting: Unknown.

6. What would flip the verdict

Profile A, Go → No-go if any of these is true:

• You cannot put a complete email (price breakdown, call-out fees, sustainability statement, HERS and CFA evidence, storage evidence, one relevant-authority reference, RAMS/insurance paperwork as the pack requires) with the council by 4 September 2026, 12:00 BST.
• The PDF sets insurance, turnover or accreditation gates you cannot meet (figures not published on CF).
• You cannot evidence secure storage of the listed assets.
• You cannot resource 24-hour contact and 4-hour attendance in Hertford town centre through the festive season (and year-round if the pack says so).
• HERS or CFA has lapsed, or is in a colleague’s name rather than the bidding company — the notice asks for evidence that the company is registered.
• You have no relevant-authority referee.

Profile A, Go → stronger Go if:

• The PDF is a short schedule plus a certificate appendix, and you already have Herts festive-licence paperwork from other towns.
• You can name Hertford’s crossroads / column geography in a method statement that respects the 5.6m / 2.5m / no-wrap rules on the notice.
• You opened the notice in mid-August and this Friday email is a polish, not a first draft.

Profile B stays No-go unless you actually hold current HERS and CFA registration — at which point you are Profile A, and the clock still applies. Subcontracting the pull tests without the company itself being CFA-registered is a gamble the public notice does not obviously allow: it asks for evidence that the company is CFA registered. Do not spend two days writing a bid that fails the first evidence check.

No-go from the start if: you are a general electrician without highway-electrical festive work; you have nowhere to store nine catenary displays and seventy stag heads; or you discovered this notice today and do not already hold the tickets.

7. Source list (URLs)

1. Live notice (HTML): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/85479893-dab0-49eb-982d-b3e12c9c6316
2. Live notice (JSON): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/api/rest/2/get_published_notice/json/85479893-dab0-49eb-982d-b3e12c9c6316
3. Search API used: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/api/rest/2/search_notices/json — docs https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/apidocumentation/Notices/2/POST-rest-searches-search
4. 2024 festive-lights predecessor (JSON): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/api/rest/2/get_published_notice/json/a499fc86-461c-4ac5-9606-adcdf9f277bf
5. 2024 festive-lights predecessor (HTML): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/a499fc86-461c-4ac5-9606-adcdf9f277bf
6. Grounds maintenance (not this contract): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/api/rest/2/get_published_notice/json/c66658e3-a887-4db2-847a-355c986b42b8
7. Iron Drive play area (not this contract): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/api/rest/2/get_published_notice/json/b3a58fc6-6842-4bda-b715-086dc18a0739
8. Castle external decoration (not this contract): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/api/rest/2/get_published_notice/json/4addaf4e-b482-4fe4-9977-db840e9146e8
9. Neighbourhood-plan consultancy (not this contract): https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/api/rest/2/get_published_notice/json/d225c6ee-a527-4ece-8933-0aca36dd05a3
10. Buyer home: https://www.hertford.gov.uk/
11. Buyer Council & Democracy (address, switchboard, Climate Emergency): https://www.hertford.gov.uk/council-democracy/
12. Buyer mission / constitution: https://www.hertford.gov.uk/our-mission-and-our-constitution/
13. Scheme of delegation (LGA 1972 cites): https://www.hertford.gov.uk/uploads/cms/pagedocument/34/2.1a-scheme-of-delegation-file.pdf
14. East Herts parish / town council listing: https://democracy.eastherts.gov.uk/mgParishCouncilDetails.aspx?ID=170&J=1&LS=3
15. Local Government Act 1972 s.101: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/70/section/101
16. HERS gloss (HEA, not the notice): https://thehea.org.uk/hers-hesa/about/
17. CFA gloss (Approved Testers, not the notice): https://www.the-cfa.co.uk/Membership/Testers.asp
18. PPN 09/21 (VAT / threshold link on the CF procedure expander): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0921-thresholds-and-inclusion-of-vat
19. OGL v3.0: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

8. Disclaimer

Read the other sample Buy £9.99