Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I Councillor Youd, Lead Member
for Finance and Support Services and chairman of the Procurement
Board, in exercise of the powers contained within the
Council Constitution
do hereby approve:
 

·     
the award of the Contract for Better Bus Routes
– The Crescent to Media City UK: Preliminary Design, as
detailed in the table below:
 

Detail required

Answers

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

Better Bus Routes – The Crescent to Media City
UK: Preliminary Design

Name of Successful
Contractor

Wilde Consulting Engineers Ltd

Supplier Registration Number

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

2603960

Type of organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Public Limited Company

Status of Organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

SME

Contract Value (£)

£245,560 / full project

Contract Duration

7months

Contract Start Date

04/12/2023

Contract End Date

04/07/2024

Optional Extension Period 1

Not Applicable at this stage

Optional Extension Period 2

months

Who will approve each Extension
Period?

Strategic Director (extension <
£150k)

Contact Officer

Stephen Hands

Lead Service Group

Place

How the contract was procured?

(to be supplied by
procurement)

Mini Competition

Framework Details (where
applicable)

(procurement body, framework reference
& title, start/ end date

TfGM Professional Services Framework, Lot 7K –
Streets for All Design Services and Traffic Engineering
(Transport)

Funding Source

Grant

Ethical Contractor (EC): Mayor’s Employment
Charter

 
 

EC: Committed to sign up to charter

EC: Accredited Living Wage Employer

 

 
The Reasons are:
To support the development of
the preliminary designs for Better Bus Routes – The Crescent
to Media City UK.
 
Options considered and rejected
were:
Delivery by the in-house team
– The Highway Design team does not have
sufficient in-house resources to carry out the Preliminary Design
in the required timeframe whilst meeting the existing commitments
of the Capital Programme.
 
Assessment of Risk:
Medium: The process of
setting budgets for the CRSTS funding settlement took place several
years’ ago, whilst inflationary pressures in the construction
sector have increased costs substantially since the funding
allocations were bid for and agreed.
 
The government funding
letter to Greater Manchester confirms ‘Any cost overruns must
be met locally and no additional HMG (Government) funding from this
settlement will be provided to support your CRSTS
programmes’.
 
This means that the
work funded by the programme may have to be reduced in scope as
inflation pressures continue to erode what can be delivered with
the funding allocated.
 
It will be important
to develop the interventions working in close collaboration with
the Greater Manchester and Active Travel England governance and
approval gateway processes, to ensure the risk of funding claw back
is minimised as projects progress beyond development to the
delivery phase of the project.
 
The source of funding
is:
City Region Sustainable
Transport Settlement (CRSTS).
 
Legal Advice obtained:
When
commissioning contracts for the procurement of goods, services, or
the execution of works the Council as a ‘contracting
authority’ must comply with the Public Contracts Regulations
2015 (PCR) as well as the provisions of its own Contractual
Standing Orders (CSO’s), Financial Regulations and the duties
of Best and Social value. 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 TfGM’s Professional Services
Framework, which was procured in accordance with the PCR and was
set up to allow public bodies named on the framework, through open
competitive process, to access an arrangement whereby suppliers can
be preselected to supply a defined scope of services under an
agreed set of terms and conditions.
 
Compliance with the process/procedure set out in the framework
agreement and evaluating bids in accordance with the published
criteria will ensure that the risk of challenge to the final award
of the contract is minimal and that any challenge, should it
materialise, is extremely unlikely to be successful. The Council
will need to follow the procedure set out in the TfGM
framework.
 
It
is important that the Council complies with any terms of the grant
funding agreement (in particular ensuring that the fund is only
used for eligible expenditure) and any timescales around
expenditure and reporting are adhered to, otherwise the Council may
be at risk of clawback for failure to comply.
 
Financial Advice
obtained:
Approval was granted at the GMCA meeting of 25th November
25th 2022, to drawdown £1.58m of CRSTS funding, to
develop the project business case for Salford Crescent –
Media City Bus Corridor scheme.  TfGM
have, as scheme promoter, developed the project to date.
 
This
report is seeking approval for the City Council to tender for
external resource in order to complete the work that the in-house
team is unable to fulfil. This will be funded by a grant
arrangement with Transport for Greater Manchester to support scheme
development costs for the next stage of the project.  The City Council will be making retrospective
grant claims on a quarterly basis as part of the agreed grant
arrangements.
 
Whilst the project should be budget neutral for SCC (as the est.
250k will be claimed back), it should be noted that the letter from
the Department for Transport to the GMCA confirming the overall
CRSTS settlement (29th July 2022), is clear that any
cost overruns must be met locally and no additional government
funding will be provided to support CRSTS programmes. Therefore,
schemes funded by the CRSTS programme, may have to be reduced in
scope as construction industry inflationary pressures continue to
present to challenges for the Council, in terms of what can be
delivered with the funding allocated.
 
Council officers are working
closely with Greater Manchester and Active Travel England on
governance and approval gateway processes, in order minimise the
risk exposure associated with funding claw backs, as projects
progress beyond development to the delivery phase.
 
Procurement Advice
obtained:
A
further competition was completed under the TfGM Professional
Services Framework, Lot 7.  Wilde
Consulting scored highest with the most economically advantageous
tender. This complies with SCC standing orders and PCR’s
2015.
 
As
part of the Council’s Innovate program efficiencies will be
considered as part of this contract.
 
HR Advice obtained:
HR support the
proposal to tender the procurement of seconded technical staff,
through the TfGM Framework to avoid any unnecessary delays in
commencing the programme. The Institution of Engineering and
Technology (IET) report currently there are on average 10 unfilled
engineering roles per business in the UK. The second extensive
recruitment campaign is planned to target individual roles with the
aim of appealing to candidates highlighting benefits and
development opportunities rather than a ‘one size fits
all’ service campaign. HR are also exploring other potential
recruitment avenues including market supplement rates and assessing
the feasibility and practical implications of overseas sponsorship
for skilled engineers.
 
Climate Change Implications
obtained:
Once completed, the project will enable the communities that
surround the route and those that use it to access the Crescent/
Media City and beyond, to make more sustainable travel choices
through a range of interventions along the route.
 
This phase of the project’s development will help shape
what these interventions could look like if taken forward to future
work stages and what the specific Climate Change Implications
are.
 
While the details of specific interventions aren’t known
at this stage, it is envisaged that the interventions will include
measures that enable more sustainable travel choices to be made
(i.e. improvements to walking and cycling facilities and access to
public transport) all of which will help reduce carbon emissions,
that are linked to global warming and reduce the number of private
vehicles on the roads.
 
 
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process:
·     
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) Report
- 25th November 2022
·     
Report to Property & Regeneration Board –
Authority to enter into Development Agreement - 14th
August 2023
·     
Procurement Board – Authority to undertake
procurement exercise – 11th October
2023
 
Contact Officer:
Stephen Hands
 
This matter is not subject to
consideration by another Lead Member.
 
The appropriate Scrutiny
Committee to call-in the decision is the
 
 

Signed:     Cllr J
Youd         Dated:     22
November 2023.
           
    Lead Member
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 22 November 2023
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 30 November 2023
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.