NEPO217 Winter Bureau, Weather Forecasting & Outstation Maintenance

The proposed procurement will establish a single NEPO‑led Open Framework for the provision of Winter Bureau services, weather forecasting services, and RWIS outstation maintenance for UK local authorities.

The framework will replace the existing NEPO217 (Winter Bureau & Outstation Maintenance) and NEPO230 (Weather Forecasting Services) arrangements and will bring these services together into one solution reflecting how they are used operationally by authorities.

The scope is expected to include:

- Winter Bureau services, including decision support, data management, system availability, resilience and user access to operational winter information.

- Weather forecasting services, providing locally relevant and operationally defensible forecasts to support winter service decision‑making.

- RWIS outstation maintenance, covering inspection, maintenance, repair, calibration and associated support for existing roadside infrastructure.

- Optional or modular services, which may include enhanced data products, radar data, route‑based forecasting or analytical tools, where supported by market capability and authority demand.

The framework will be designed to support continuity of existing systems and infrastructure, recognising recent investment by authorities and avoiding mandated wholesale replacement of assets. Authorities will be able to access services through clearly defined call‑off mechanisms, including further competition where appropriate.

The Open Framework is expected to operate for up to eight years, with periodic reopening in line with the Procurement Act 2023 to allow for market refresh and potential new entrants.

Please note, details in this notice are subject to change and are not to be considered final. NEPO reserves the right to alter or change details in this notice at any time at its sole discretion.

NEPO is a Centralised Procurement Authority as defined in the Procurement Act 2023 (PA23), providing central purchasing activity on behalf of Contracting Authorities. All elements in this notice are subject to change at the sole discretion of NEPO. This notice is intended to inform the market of the potential scope of the procurement, not to be taken as the final agreed version.

NEPO will engage with the wider market in a pre-market consultation session in the near future to inform the market of a more developed scope.

The agreement will be available to NEPO Member Authorities and all current and future Associate Members.

Current Associate Members are listed in the Associate Member section of the NEPO website at: https://www.nepo.org/associate-membership

A list of permissible users available at: https://www.nepo.org/associate-membership/permissible-users

Organisations wishing to access the NEPO agreement will be required to register as a NEPO Associate Member in the first instance. Further information can be found at: www.nepo.org