London borough kicks off its Smart Place project by launching two tenders

Credit:Sunil Prasannan/CC BY-SA 3.0  

The London borough of Sutton has kicked off its Smart Place project to use technology and digital services to improve the lives of citizens. 

The project, run by Sutton Council, aims to address three key challenges, the first of which is “supporting older people to live independently, make informed choices about their future care provision, reduce isolation, and increase digital confidence”. The second is to improve the environment in Sutton, including addressing air quality and traffic congestion, but also citizen engagement in local democracy and civic issues. The third priority is enabling people that would normally require support in using public transport to travel more independently – while remaining safe.

The borough has launched tenders looking for suppliers that can help with projects designed to meet the first two challenges.

The first of these is seeking partners that can propose ideas to help the borough monitor and manage air quality. 

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“We are looking for the market to respond to this challenge with innovative ways that we can help people in the borough understand the impact their actions have on air quality, and encourage a demonstrable change in behaviour,” the council said. “We are open to how or where in the borough the project would be run – we are looking for ambitious ideas that can make a positive difference.”

Bids are invited until 4 April, with an eight-month contract scheduled to commence on 1 May. The project is expected to be worth between £5,000 and £10,000.

Sutton has also launched a tender seeking providers that can help with its goal of “supporting older people to live independently through the use of technology”. Potential suppliers have until 9 April to submit proposals, with a six-month contract – worth up to £20,000 – due to launch on 21 May.

Located on the southern boundary of London, Sutton has a population of 200,000. About one in five of these live in the town of Sutton, with other districts of the borough including Carshalton and Cheam.