Sample bid answer

A worked example, written for a made-up company ("Example Grounds Ltd"). It shows the style and structure you can expect: direct, specific and easy to score. The question is typical of those councils ask in grounds maintenance tenders, and every name, figure and job below is fictional.

The question (typical of a council grounds maintenance tender)

Q4. Service delivery (weighting 20%, maximum 750 words). Describe how you will deliver the grass-cutting and shrub-bed maintenance schedule across the Council's 38 sites, including how you will plan the work, manage weather disruption, and report completion to the Council.

Sample answer (excerpt, about 300 of 750 words)

4.1 Planning the schedule Example Grounds Ltd will build the 38 sites into four geographic rounds of 9–10 sites, each assigned to a two-person crew with a named team leader. Each round runs on a fixed 10-working-day cycle from March to October, matching the Council's specified 14 cuts per season. Our operations manager, Sam Taylor (fictional), will issue the round sheets every Friday for the following week and hold a 15-minute check-in with the Council's contract officer every Monday morning during the growing season.

4.2 Managing weather disruption If ground conditions make cutting unsafe or would damage turf (standing water, or more than 10 mm of rain in the previous 24 hours at the nearest weather station), the team leader will stop work and switch the crew to shrub-bed and litter tasks, which aren't weather-sensitive. Missed cuts are rescheduled within 3 working days, and we'll email the Council a revised round sheet by 4pm on the day of the stoppage. Across the 2025 season on our (fictional) Anytown District contract, this approach kept every site within 2 working days of its planned cut date.

4.3 Reporting completion Crews log each site as complete in a mobile app, with a time-stamped, geotagged photo. The Council receives:

• live access to the completion map
• a weekly PDF summary every Friday
• a monthly KPI report against the contract's four performance indicators, including any rectification completed.

[The answer continues with mobilisation, staff training and environmental controls.]

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