Haldon Forest Park Bike Hire Concession

Description

Forestry England is seeking expressions of interest from operators wishing to deliver bike hire at the Haldon Forest Park Visitor hub. Haldon Forest Park is only 15 minutes from Exeter and Newton Abbot, just off the A38 and 45 minutes from Plymouth. The site https://www.forestryengland.uk/haldon-forest-park attracts approximately 500,000 visits annually. Cycle hire will be for the family/leisure/mountain bike market, there is also the opportunity to run a bike workshop and small bike retail offer. Haldon Forest Park has a great reputation for its offerings to the mountain biking community, it hosts over 22km of dedicated, offical cycle routes, catering to all demographics, skills and abilties. Additionally, there is a dedicated skills area and a pump track. From novices to advanced enthusiasts, there really is something for everyone. The bike hire will be required to operate out of temporary buildings for the duration of the lease. Interested parties are asked to confirm if they would like to run a workshop operation in addition to the bike hire. Currently we anticipate the lease period being a total of 7 years (5+1+1). The draft lease Heads of Terms will be available in the tender documents to be published September 2025. The total value of the lease opportunity over the term will be in the region of £700,000. We expect to award the lease in December 2025 for the concession to be operational by 1st April 2026. Expressions of Interest Expressions of interest should be submitted via email to commercial.services@forestryengland.uk. Following consideration of the initial expressions of interest, Forestry England may wish to engage in further soft market testing with respondents. Therefore, at this stage the scope of the lease and lease duration is still subject to change based on feedback from the market. This prior information notice does not commit Forestry England to any future procurement or any subsequent decisions based on the output of the market sounding exercise. Forestry England reserves the right not to proceed to a formal procurement process.