Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) has made a direct contract award for the Poolway Farm Flood alleviation scheme to the developer of the Poolway Farm site with an estimated total value of £720,000 (inc VAT).
The contract has been awarded to privately owned Gloucestershire-based firm M F Freeman Ltd – the Group’s work includes commercial and residential property developments, civil engineering and construction works. The developer plans to build 140 homes on the land at Poolway Farm in Gloucester Road, Coleford.
The direct award has been made on the basis that as a single supplier with exclusive rights to the land, the developer has the unique legal exclusivity on the land the flood alleviation scheme is set to be delivered on.
The developer will not allow for any other contractor, other than their own staff, and approved sub-contractors to carry out work on their development.
According to the Council, this has resulted in a redundant competitive tender process as other contractors are not able to complete the onsite works. As no other party will have a legal or physical right to access the development site GCC is proposing to undertake a bespoke legal agreement with the developer to retain project management oversight during construction of the flood storage area.
GCC said that while other strategies and locations had been considered for reducing flood risk to Coleford, these had been proven unsuitable through hydraulic modelling. The Council has explored a range of options through hydraulic modelling to assess benefits of each proposal – however, only one proposal was deemed technically and practically feasible for reducing flood risk. The proposals meet the following strategic objectives of the Gloucestershire County Council Local Flood Risk Management Strategy.
Earliest date the contract will be signed is 3 February 2026 - current estimated start and end contract dates are 10 February 2026 to 31 March 2027.
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