Decision

To allocate £71,771.00 of capital funding and £20,000.00 of revenue funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) for the Shopfront Improvement Grant Scheme.
To enter into a contract with Retail Designs Solutions as a result of a competitive procurement process.
To allocate the remaining UKSPF capacity payment of £6470.00 to the planning consultant as a retainer.

Reasons for the decision

A Request for Quotation (RFQ) was completed, resulting in four responses. Each quotation was thoroughly assessed and scored. The evaluation concluded that the quote from Retail Designs Solutions offered the best value for money and provided superior support for the Shopfront Improvement Grant applicants.
Retail Designs Solutions would be completing planning applications and related tasks, facilitating applicants of the Shopfront Improvement Grants schemes under both the UKSPF and Community Regeneration Partnership (CRP) in obtaining the necessary planning permissions for grant approval.
All payments for Retail Designs Solutions for CRP Shopfront Improvement Grants will come out of the CRP funding that has already been agreed and allocated to this grant scheme. The capacity payment of £6,470.00 will be for work completing planning applications coming under UKSPF for the Shopfront Improvement Grant Scheme. Any additional payments for Retail Designs Solutions for UKSPF Shopfront Improvement Grants will come out of the allocated Capital funding.

Alternative options considered

It was considered not to put a planning consultant in place but this was not done due to it being a blocker in previous years.