Content

Salford City Council - Record of Decision
(Cabinet)
 
I
Paul Dennett , City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained
within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve:
 
1.   
The acceptance of the grant funding from
United Utilities and the Environment Agency for the Walkden
SuDs project.
 
2.   
Authorises the City Solicitor to sign all
necessary documents to give effect to this decision.
The Reasons are:
Acceptance of both
the grants from United Utilities and the Environment Agency needs
to be done in line with the appropriate Council governance
authorisation. The acceptance of grants is currently not expressly
delegated by the City Mayor and in this case, both of the grant
awards are Key Decisions, as they each exceed
£350,000.
Acceptance of the
grant funding is essential to enable the delivery of this
project.
Options considered and rejected were:

Nil.
Assessment of Risk:

Low – in terms
of accepting the grant conditions.
Medium in terms of timescales
The source of funding is:

§ 
SCC capital programme & s106 monies £226,913

§ 
United Utilities (UU) Green Recovery
grant £1,128,000

§ 
GMCA Green Spaces Fund
£40,000

§ 
Environment Agency grant
£350,729
 
Legal Advice obtained:

David Wilcock - Solicitor
(Corporate Projects)
Acceptance of both the grants from United Utilities and the
Environment Agency needs to be done in line with the appropriate
Council governance. The acceptance of grants is currently not
expressly delegated by the City Mayor and in this case, both of the
grant awards are Key Decisions, as they each exceed £350,000.
The decision must therefore be taken by the City Mayor in
consultation with Cabinet. The grant awards must be documented
appropriately in order to safeguard the Council’s interests
and manage risk appropriately.
 
 
Tony
Hatton – Group Leader, Commercial Legal

As set out in the report, United
Utilities (UU) and the Environment Agency have awarded the Council
grant funding to support delivery of the Walkden SuDS project. UU and Salford City Council have
entered into a partnership Agreement to support the grant funding,
which Legal Services has been involved in drafting and negotiating
with Council officers and UU.

 
When
the Council commission a third-party provider to deliver the
SuDS, it should ensure that its
allocation of this grant funding to the provider is made in
accordance with all relevant legislation (including, where
applicable, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Subsidy
Control Act 2022), and in accordance with Salford City
Council’s Constitution (including the Council’s
Contractual Standing Orders).
 

As mentioned, Legal Services have advised
on the terms of the agreement with UU, and as always, it is
important that the Council complies with the terms of the
agreement, in particular ensuring that the funds are only used for
eligible expenditure and any timescales around expenditure and
reporting are adhered too. If not the Council may be at risk of
breaching the terms, and of not being able to claim any outstanding
grant monies should the project not complete by March
2025. 
 
Financial Advice obtained:
Paul Guest – Senior Accountant - 21/05/2024
 
Successful Grant applications for the funding of the Walkden
SuDs project have been made to
Environment Agency and United Utilities. Due to the value of these
grants each exceeding £350,000 then formal acceptance of
these are required by the City Mayor in conjunction with
Cabinet.
 
Once accepted and the Partnership Agreement is signed with
United Utilities then the drawdown of this grant can be made on
completion of key milestones. The one risk to the programme is the
UU grant requirement of completion of the project by the end of
March 2025. Failure to complete by this date would mean that any
outstanding grant at that time could not be claimed.
 
Procurement Advice obtained:
N/A
HR Advice obtained:
N/A
Climate Change Advice obtained:
The
purpose of this scheme is retrofit SuDs
into a neighbourhood location to lessen water flow into the sewer
system, alleviate the impact of flooding and increase
biodiversity.
 
The following documents have been used to assist
the decision process:
Nil.

Contact Officer:      Jackie Ashley                     
Telephone number: 
07515 188242
 
The appropriate scrutiny to call-in
the decision is the Community and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny
Panel
           

Signed:      Paul Dennett                       
  Dated:        31.07.24                          
.
                       
City Mayor
 

For
Democratic Services use only

 

This decision was
published on    31.07.24                                         

This decision will
come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 07.08.24                   
                              
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.