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Welsh regional body concedes procurement challenge over £40m contract award for demolition of power station

Cardiff Capital Region has conceded liability, causation and sufficiently serious breach in a procurement challenge to the award of a £40 million contract for the demolition of Aberthaw Power Station.

Demolition is the first phase of a scheme developed by the regional body (a corporate joint committee of the 10 councils in South East Wales) for the carbon neutral regeneration of the Aberthaw site.

Cardiff City Counci was the contracting authority on behalf of Cardiff Capital Region for the demolition project.

According to Joseph Barrett KC and Ben Mitchell of 11KBW, who acted for the successful claimant Brown and Mason (BMG), the claims were due to be determined at a three-week High Court trial in March 2025.

However, at the pre-trial review on 31 January 2025 the defendant abandoned its defence of the proceedings.

Mrs Justice Jefford made declarations that:

  • Cardiff City Council’s conduct of the procurement was unlawful
  • BMG had submitted the most economically advantageous tender
  • If Cardiff City Council had acted lawfully, BMG would have been awarded the contract
  • BMG was entitled to damages, to be assessed.

According to Barrett and Mitchell, the allegations of breach of duty in the proceedings were extremely wide-ranging including that unlawful changes were made to the award criteria during the course of the procurement, and there was a very significant number of breaches of duty in the evaluation of bids, including manifest errors and failures to apply the published award criteria.

The claimant also alleged a failure to create or retain lawful or transparent records of the evaluation, and apparent bias in the conduct of the evaluation.

The proceedings will now proceed to the quantum stage. BMG’s claim is valued in excess of £10 million.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Capital Region said: “Liability has been admitted in respect of a procurement challenge by an unsuccessful bidder in relation to the demolition of the former coal-fired Aberthaw Power Station. This is currently the subject of ongoing legal proceedings (including any outcome on damages), and until that process is concluded, we are unable to comment further.”

Joseph Barrett KC and Ben Mitchell of 11KBW acted for BMG throughout the proceedings, instructed by Jon Hainey, Emily Beckwith and Heidi Parker of TLT LLP.