Agenda item

Gore Street Connection

Decision:

Salford City Council - Record of Decision

 

I Paul Dennett, City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve:

 

1.    The updated proposals for the Gore Street Connection Mayor’s Challenge Fund scheme;

 

2.    The proposed allocation of £195,000 reallocated pinch point funding as Council match funding towards the Gore Street Connection scheme;

 

3.    That the scheme should be procured in accordance with the Council’s Contractual Standing Orders through an existing Framework (as approved at 3rd June 2020 Procurement Board). 

 

4.    The delegation of authority to the Strategic Director Place, in consultation with the S151 officer, to submit the Full Business Case (FBC) to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) for review; and

 

5.    The delegation of authority to the Strategic Director Place, in consultation with the S151 officer, to draft and approve the Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) between Salford City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the GMCA.

 

The Reasons are:

 

  1. A business case for the scheme is currently being developed for submission to Transport for Greater Manchester.

 

  1. A successful business case is fundamental to securing project delivery funding for the scheme.

 

  1. Scheme procurement of a preferred supplier is proposed to commence in May 2021.

 

  1. The Council needs to be clear on its ability to provide match funding as part of this business case process. 

 

  1. The local contribution makes up a significant proportion of the overall funding.

 

Options considered and rejected were:

 

  1. Procurement via the Manchester City Council Highways and Infrastructure Construction Works Framework (MCC HICWF Framework).

 

  1. Meet the match funding obligation from elsewhere in Council resources. This would place additional pressure on the Capital Programme.

 

  1. Do not deliver the Gore Street Connection scheme.

 

Assessment of Risk: Medium

 

The following key project risks have been identified: -

 

1.    A tendered cost for the scheme is required when submitting a Full Business Case (FBC). Without an FBC approval grant funding will not be approved for construction of the scheme.

 

2.    Subject to the submission/approval of business cases, scheme delivery funding will be awarded on the basis that the Council is able to make a match funding contribution of £195,000.  Should this local contribution not be agreed within the Council, this would leave a shortfall which would need to be met from elsewhere in Council budgets.  The other alternatives for the council would be to not proceed with delivering the scheme.

 

3.    Interface with third party development on either side of Gore Street and the impact that this could have on scheme delivery and cost. 

 

 

The source of funding is:

 

A breakdown of the proposed funding sources is summarised in the following table followed by further detail on the proposed approach to securing the funding for the scheme.

 

 

Funding Source

£

MCF

487,573.49

Local contribution

195,000.00

Total

682,573.49

 

Mayor’s Challenge Fund (MCF)

The scheme will be seeking a proportion of the required funding from the MCF. In order to access this funding stream, a requirement is to submit a Full Business Case (FBC) to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) for review.

 

The FBC is currently in the process of being finalised in close collaboration with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and specialist suppliers.

 

The FBC is expected to be submitted to GMCA in Summer 2021 once the Tender process has been completed and the highest scoring tender has been identified.

 

Local contributions:

A local contribution of £195k has been secured from Salford City Council funding and will contribute towards the scheme. The funding has been reassigned from underspend from the DfT Pinch Point grant awarded to the Irwell St Junction project located in City Centre Salford. Approval in writing has been received from the Department for Transport for the reallocation of the funding and there are no specific conditions associated with using this funding for the Gore Street Scheme.

 

Legal Advice obtained:  Tony Hatton

 

When commissioning contracts for the procurement of goods, services or the execution of works, the Council must comply with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and its own Contractual Standing Orders (CSOs), failing which a contract may be subject to legal challenge from an aggrieved provider. CSO’s stipulate that where a suitable framework exists, this must be used unless there is an auditable reason not to do so.

 

The proposed procurement of the works will be by way of a tender exercise in accordance with the process set out in the Bolton Council Highways Framework Contract – Lot 1 (NEC4 Option B), which itself was procured in accordance with the PCR using an OJEU process, and will therefore ensure that the risk of challenge to the award of any contract is minimal and that any challenge, should it materialise, is extremely unlikely to be successful.

 

The purpose of a framework agreement is to select through a procurement / evaluation process, a number of providers who can meet the service requirements of the Council, as and when those services are required. If they are required then the Council will undertake an exercise to call off the services from one or more of the providers who have been selected to be on the framework and this may be through any number of ways, in this instance by way of mini competition. A contract will then be formed between the Council and the chosen provider(s). The Council will need to have followed the procedure set out in the framework agreement for mini competition to ensure the procurement process is compliant.

 

Legal shall be happy to advise on the grant funding agreement between the Council, TfGM and GMCA to ensure the Council’s interests are protected. The terms of any grant funding agreement will need to be adhered to in the event that there are clawback provisions for failure to comply.

 

Financial Advice obtained:  Natalie Birchall

 

The Gore Street Connection scheme, as proposed in this report, has a current estimated cost of £682,573.49 of which the estimated cost of implementing the scheme is £514,013.08. The scheme received MCF programme entry approval in June 2019 and the proposals outlined in this report will facilitate full business case development and approval by GMCA, to secure the access to the Mayor’s Challenge Funding.

 

In addition to the grant funding a local contribution of £195k has been secured from Salford City Council funding and will contribute towards funding the scheme. The funding has been reassigned from underspend from the DfT Pinch Point grant awarded to the Irwell St Junction project located in City Centre Salford. Approval in writing has been received from the Department for Transport for the reallocation of the funding and there are no specific conditions associated with using this funding for the Gore Street Scheme.

 

In agreement with GMCA, as the scheme has received programme entry approval SCC is able to claim scheme development costs in advance of FBC approval which is expected in June 2021.  In accordance with MCF rules, SCC will cash flow the project and reclaim from TFGM via quarterly claims. As part of the MCF process for Full Business Case, Salford City Council must enter into a legally binding Grant Funding Agreement (GFA). This forms a financial contract between Salford, TfGM and GMCA. The council will look to match fund the scheme from SCC funding. Following FBC approval to be submitted to GMCA in October 2021, further approvals and a procurement board report will be required to award a contract to the successful contractor and include confirmations of secured match funding.

 

Procurement Advice obtained: Heather Stanton

 

The Bolton Council Highways Framework Contract 2019/2023 has been procured compliantly in line with OJEU and Public Contract Regulations 2015. In accordance with Contractual Standing Orders the procurement team will support the technical team to undertake a complaint mini competition through this framework in line with the framework agreement.

 

Authority has already been granted by Procurement Board for the Gore Street Connection Mayor’s Challenge Fund scheme to be procured in accordance with the Council’s Contractual Standing Orders through an existing Framework. This followed presentation of the scheme in June 2020 to procurement board, where permission was sought to go out to tender.

 

HR Advice obtained: N/A

 

Climate Change Advice obtained: N/A

 

The following documents have been used to assist the decision process:

 

-       Report of the Strategic Director for Place to Procurement Board on 3rd June 2020. Approval to go out to competition for the Gore Street Connection Mayors Challenge Fund scheme.

 

-       Minutes from Procurement Board meeting held via MS Teams. 3 June 2020.

 

-       Lead Member for Planning and Sustainable Development briefing 9th March 2021. City Centre Salford ‘Gore Street Connection’.

 

-       Appendix 3: City Centre Salford ‘Active Centres, Corridors & Neighbourhoods Project’. Tranche 5 Funding Submission to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Cycling & Walking Challenge Fund. 5th April 2019.

 

-       Report to Property/Regen Briefing 12 April 2021

 

Contact Officer:  Simon Telford                          

Telephone number: 07799677214

 

This decision is not subject to consideration by another Lead Member.

The appropriate scrutiny to call-in the decision is the Growth and Prosperity Scrutiny Panel.                 

 

 

Signed: Paul Dennett

City Mayor

Dated:  12 April 2021                                                    

 

 

This decision was published on Monday 12 April 2021                                            

This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on Monday 19 April 2021 unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.

 

Supporting documents: