Joseph Barrett KC and Ben Mitchell acted successfully for Brown and Mason Limited (BMG) in its legal challenge to the award of the £40 million contract for the demolition of Aberthaw Power Station, the first phase of Cardiff City Council’s scheme for the carbon neutral regeneration of the Aberthaw site.
The claims were due to be determined at a 3-week High Court trial in March 2025. However, at the pre-trial review on 31 January 2025 Cardiff City Council abandoned its defence of the proceedings and conceded liability, causation and sufficiently serious breach.
The High Court (Jefford J) accordingly 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.
The allegations of breach of duty in the proceedings (now conceded) were extremely wide-ranging:
- Unlawful changes being made to the award criteria during the course of the procurement;
- A very significant number of breaches of duty in the evaluation of bids, including manifest errors and failures to apply the published award criteria;
- Failure to create or retain lawful or transparent records of the evaluation;
- Apparent bias in the conduct of the evaluation;
- Failing to disqualify the preferred bidder on grounds of its failure to meet a number of deadlines and other mandatory requirements;
- Unlawful negotiation with the preferred bidder after the expiry of the tender deadline.
The proceedings will now proceed to the quantum stage. BMG’s claim is valued in excess of £10 million.
Joseph Barrett KC and Ben Mitchell acted successfully for BMG throughout the proceedings, instructed by Jon Hainey, Emily Beckwith and Heidi Parker of TLT LLP.
