Purpose

The following DAR records the decision of the
Corporate Director – Neighbourhoods & Housing to accept
grant funding of £3,054,000 from the Liverpool City Region
Combined Authority (the ‘Combined Authority’) and to
commence the procurement exercise for the construction phase of the
scheme.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the
Corporate Director has decided to:
1)   
accept the grant funding of £3,054,000 from the Combined
Authority and enter into the associated grant funding agreement to
receive the funds; and
2)   
commence a procurement exercise to acquire a contractor to
construct the Bath Street Active Travel Scheme with an estimated
value of £2.9m plus VAT. 

Alternative options considered

Do Minimum – Reducing the scope
of the activities and delivering reduced outputs would limit the
number of people that would be targeted in encouraging them to walk
or cycle and offer a disjointed active travel network. This option
was therefore discounted.
 
Do Nothing - This option does not align
with the council’s goals of reducing car use and promoting
active travel. The LUF funding will enable an active travel scheme
to be delivered that the Council would not be able to fund
otherwise. Therefore, this option was discounted.
 
Open Tender – this option has
been discounted as the council have recently been through a process
to set up and appoint contractors to the new HPWF. This scheme will
be one of the first to utilise the new framework which has been
assessed by the council and the contractors on the framework have
been deemed to offer best value based on the framework rates they
have provided. By going through an open tender process, the council
would not benefit from the HPWF rates.