Why Steer Davies Gleave?

This is from the internal KCC document that describes how the contract (to produce the supporting report for the £10m RGF bid) was awarded.

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Outline of Project

Although KCC has previously carried out some outline feasibility work for the proposed Thanet Parkway station (most recently in July 2009), this requires significant updating and development; including more comprehensive passenger demand forecasting and a full feasibility design of the station and car park, if a robust and credible RGF bid is to be prepared. The Government is particularly interested in the job creation potential (both direct and indirect) of proposed schemes, which has not previously been a requirement of traditional transport appraisals. For these reasons, and in light of the challenging timescale for the submission of a first-round RGF bid, it was agreed with the Director of Integrated Strategy and Planning that KCC should invite three technical consultants to tender for this work. [You can read the Invitation to Tender below.]

Reasons for appointing this particular Consultant:

Steer Davies Gleave have been appointed to work on this project primarily due to their proposed approach to the calculation of the additional employment created (directly and indirectly) as a result of the construction of the Thanet Parkway station. This is the key criterion against which RGF bids will be appraised by Government and therefore it is crucial that the consultant's approach in this area is thorough and robust.

The approach proposed by MVA and Jacobs was relatively primitive, relying heavily on consultation with a limited number of local employers (specifically Kent International Airport and Pfizer) to establish the likely number of additional jobs arising from the development of the Parkway station. By contrast, Steer Davies Gleave propose to use their Spatial Economic Impact Model (SpECTRa), which takes as inputs the results of Benefit Cost Analyses of the station and models the structural changes these impacts cause on the local economy via productivity gains and increases in attractiveness. The outputs of the model include changes to wages and prices, to jobs by occupation, to productivity and output, as well as to trade with the rest of the UK, by economic sector.

The SpECTRa model has been approved by the DfT in previous transport scheme appraisals and represents a more comprehensive and sophisticated approach to economic analysis than those proposed by MVA and Jacobs.

Benefits Expected of appointing this Consultant:

The principal benefits expected from appointing Steer Davies Gleave to work on this project are those relating to the quantification of the economic benefits of the Parkway station, as described above. Steer Davies Gleave have extensive experience of preparing business cases and funding bids for rail infrastructure projects, including Liverpool South Parkway and the proposed Stratford Parkway.

The fixed fee of £42,723 proposed by Steer Davies Gleave is considered reasonable. The funding will be made up of contributions from KCC's Sustainable Transport and Transport Policy Teams and Thanet District Council.

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Did you spot any key phrases?

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Dear Reader, you can download your copy of the once-secret KCC Bid Document below, and if you can deduce (or already know) the identities of the airline, or the European hub airport, that are painstakingly blacked out throughout the document, do let me know. Thank you.

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