Agenda and decisions

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

I Councillor David  Lancaster, Lead Member Environment and Community Safety, in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council Constitution do hereby  give approval for Salford City Council to provide a grant of £159,951 match funding to City of Trees to deliver the DEFRA Urban Tree Challenge Fund

The Reasons are: The Urban Tree Challenge is a DEFRA funded grant to plant trees in urban areas. A successful partnership bid from City of Trees and Salford City Council secured funding to plant and maintain 489 trees in roadside verges and parks across the city.

The City Council has approved match funding of £159,951 from the Place Directorate Green City Capital Budget. The project is being managed and delivered by the Greenspace and Streetscene Team.

Options considered and rejected were: N/A

Assessment of Risk: LOW

The source of funding is: Place Directorate Capital Budget

Legal Advice supplied by: Tony Hatton, Principal Solicitor, tel. 219 6323

Legally speaking it is important to remember that 'procurement' is a public authority acquiring specific goods, services or works through commissioning a third party to provide these on the Council's behalf under a contract. The delivery of these is usually measured against some form of service specification and key performance indicators (e.g. targets, outcomes, timescales etc), and the delivery of such works/services/goods is usually in exchange for payment (if the requirements of the contract are met).  Usually a services contract will contain robust mechanisms to enforce the terms of the contract - e.g. if the service was underperforming, a review mechanism requiring the provider to address any shortcomings. This might make a services contract more favourable than a simple grant depending on what outcomes are being sought.

In contrast, grant funding can be used as a means of supporting the operations or objectives of third party organisations. This may in turn may supplement, compliment, develop or further the services and objectives of the Council, without directly commissioning that organisation under a services contract.

Grants are not subject to procurement rules so the Council is free to distribute grant monies directly to organisations fairly easily and flexibly (although being mindful of state aid rules). But the scope and drafting of the grant should be carefully considered to ensure that it is not just in fact a services contract in disguise (which then may be in breach of procurement rules and provide the Council with less protection under the agreement). Under a grant, the Council can restrict the use of the monies to a particular purpose, or set time periods for when the grant can be used, and provide for refunding of the grant if used outside of the grant purpose.

The grant shouldn't be too prescriptive as to exactly how the organisation should spend the monies to further the grant purpose, or how the service should be delivered. For example, measures giving the Council a high degree of control or influence over how the  ...  view the full decision text for item 3a

No Items