Decisions

The Council has decided to increase its support for the Common Ambition Bristol project by enhancing and extending the activities provided by The Brigstowe Project, which address HIV inequalities amongst people of African and Caribbean heritage. This funding will enable Brigstowe to provide services including project co-ordination, co-production of interventions with community members such as outreach and health promotion activities. This is part of a city wide plan to address HIV in Bristol and comes under the Bristol Fast Track Cities partnership and is a key outcome within our One City plan. The grant funding will enable The Brigstowe Project to continue to support Common Ambition Bristol to address HIV inequalities amongst people of African and Caribbean heritage to 31 March 2025.

To increase support for the Common Ambition Bristol project by enhancing and extending the activities provided by The Brigstowe Project,

Resource commitment of £100-£500k in line with the decision pathway and scheme of delegation. Insurance is required to be in place effective 1st April 2023.

The decision to extend motor insurance in line with the contract for a year for Bristol City Council and Bristol Waste Company.

This is the only product of this system available via the eMarketplace catalogue, which enables the council to make a compliant direct award to renew an incumbent and implemented system under the Crown Commercial Services framework for Data and Application Solutions (RM3821). The council is doing this to maintain both internal and public facing geographical systems, data, and processes, which are vital to the delivery of council services. E.g. web forms that rely on location data such as address/street information to function, calculating school admissions distances, waste services, planning maps etc.

To renew an ArcGIS Enterprise Licence Agreement (ELA) through Direct Award for a period of three years. The supplier is ESRI.

To commission a contractor to deliver the works associated with the permanent road Closure of Cotham Hill.

Further to the 27 April 2022 Officer Executive Decision, and the 14 September 2021 DfT Active Travel Fund (ATF) Tranche 3 Cabinet paper that preceded it, the Interim Executive Director for Growth and Regeneration (in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Transport) has authorised the commissioning of a contractor (ETM Contractors Ltd) to deliver the works associated with the permanent road Closure of Cotham Hill.

Following two major fire incidents in Council high-rise blocks (one caused by lithium batteries exploding and the other by arson) meetings have taken place with Avon and Somerset Chief Fire Officer and Service with the Mayor, Chief Executive, Service Director and Cabinet Member. Their advice was to review a number of our fire safety policies . In addition, the Council has received three PAS9980 inspection reports that have recommended precautionary measures of implementing waking watch on a number of other blocks where there may be a risk, while remedial works are carried out.
This decision authorises the procurement and award of a contract with company/companies to carry out this Waking Watch service, which will have significant financial demands for the HRA in the immediate and medium terms. The Council spends on average £2.5m per annum on safety measures and is developing a programme of works worth £48m in place to carry out to remove EPS cladding. This measure in the light of two major fires and separately commissioned inspection reports necessitate the introduction of Waking Watch as interim measures to ensure the safety of residents remains paramount and secure. The Council must commission this service as a precautionary measure to protect the health and welfare of residents of high-rise blocks where EPS is present.

Call off from Dynamic purchasing system contract for HRA Waking Watch South

Following two major fire incidents in Council high-rise blocks (one caused by lithium batteries exploding and the other by arson) meetings have taken place with Avon and Somerset Chief Fire Officer and Service with the Mayor, Chief Executive, Service Director and Cabinet Member. Their advice was to review a number of our fire safety policies . In addition, the Council has received three PAS9980 inspection reports that have recommended precautionary measures of implementing waking watch on a number of other blocks where there may be a risk, while remedial works are carried out.
This decision authorises the procurement and award of a contract with company/companies to carry out this Waking Watch service, which will have significant financial demands for the HRA in the immediate and medium terms. The Council spends on average £2.5m per annum on safety measures and is developing a programme of works worth £48m in place to carry out to remove EPS cladding. This measure in the light of two major fires and separately commissioned inspection reports necessitate the introduction of Waking Watch as interim measures to ensure the safety of residents remains paramount and secure. The Council must commission this service as a precautionary measure to protect the health and welfare of residents of high-rise blocks where EPS is present.

Call off from Dynamic purchasing system contract for HRA Waking Watch North Round 1

Following two major fire incidents in Council high-rise blocks (one caused by lithium batteries exploding and the other by arson) meetings have taken place with Avon and Somerset Chief Fire Officer and Service with the Mayor, Chief Executive, Service Director and Cabinet Member. Their advice was to review a number of our fire safety policies . In addition, the Council has received three PAS9980 inspection reports that have recommended precautionary measures of implementing waking watch on a number of other blocks where there may be a risk, while remedial works are carried out.
This decision authorises the procurement and award of a contract with company/companies to carry out this Waking Watch service, which will have significant financial demands for the HRA in the immediate and medium terms. The Council spends on average £2.5m per annum on safety measures and is developing a programme of works worth £48m in place to carry out to remove EPS cladding. This measure in the light of two major fires and separately commissioned inspection reports necessitate the introduction of Waking Watch as interim measures to ensure the safety of residents remains paramount and secure. The Council must commission this service as a precautionary measure to protect the health and welfare of residents of high-rise blocks where EPS is present.

Call off from Dynamic purchasing system contract for HRA Waking Watch Central Round 1

In order to appoint a contractor ready to start working by summer 2023 to enable construction completion by March 2024 in line with funding conditions.

To appoint the highest ranked contractor from a tendering exercise, ETM Contracting Ltd. Taking this decision was delegated to “the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with Cabinet Member for Transport, the s151 officer, and the Head of Legal Services” by a Cabinet decision in September 2021.

Cabinet on 18th January 2022 authorised the Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the Section 151 Officer, Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Performance and Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes (with appropriate legal and procurement advice) and, subject to keeping within the approved overall HDP budget, to implement the HRA Development Programme set out in Appendix A3 including: (a) all steps necessary to procure and award contracts (including goods, works and professional services) during 2022/23 to deliver the HRA Development programme capital investment plans detailed in Appendix A3 (notwithstanding those individual contracts may exceed the key decision threshold). (b) agree the allocation of financial expenditure on schemes within the Programme (c) to determine the appropriate nature/mix of tenure appropriate for each scheme (d) to identify suitable sites and properties for the programme, including both Council property and acquiring additional land or properties.

Approval to award the creation of a Dynamic Purchasing System of pre-approved suppliers to invite to tender for works to housing properties.

•To enable the delivery of the project in accordance with the Cabinet Decision of 7 February 2023 to accept the funding and deliver this project.
From our market research and consultation with industry experts Veritherm are the only company able to have the technical capability and capacity to offer a combination of home survey tools as required. We estimate that their combined offer provides a discount of at approximately 65%.

To appoint Veritherm through the route of ‘compliant exception: Particularly advantageous commercial terms’ to deliver up to 270 heat pump readiness home surveys following an innovative methodology as part of the Heat Pump Ready Project.

Delegated decision to ensure continuity of business support until 3 year UKSPF funded contract commences in Summer 2023.

To extend the current universal business support contract due to expire on 31st March 2023 until 30th June 2023.

Following support at the Growth and Regeneration EDM on March 22nd CEO approval is required to submit two funding bids to the Brownfield Land Release Fund which will enable remediation of two brownfield sites in Bristol for Community-led affordable housing projects.

The Brownfield Land Release Fund 2 (BLRF2) is making up to £180 million capital grant funding available to English councils to support the release of council-owned brownfield land for housing development. Local authorities are asked to submit bids by 31 March 2023.
The decision has been taken to approve submission for two grant funding bids to the BLRF as follows:
Bristol City Council will submit two bids to Round 2 to fund abnormal costs for site remediation and ecological mitigation to enable the release of Rowlandson Gardens and Turner Gardens for development of Community-led affordable housing. Both sites are identified for disposal through the Council’s Community-led Housing Land Disposal Policy adopted by Cabinet in February 2020, Community led housing policies.
The bids are for:
£81,153 for garage / asbestos removal, ecological and remediation works at Turner Gardens, Lockleaze.
£43,329 for garage / asbestos removal at Rowlandson Gardens, Lockleaze.
This capital grant funding will unlock and accelerate the release of these local authority owned sites for Community Led Housing.

In April 2022 £94.7m of external Brownfield Investment Land (BIL) grant funding was awarded for projects in the first phase of the Temple Quarter regeneration programme. The business case and funding bid was submitted by WECA to Homes England, on behalf of Bristol City Council and Network Rail, and the grant will be administered by Homes England. In relation to this grant funding, in October 2022 Cabinet authorised the Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration to (amongst other things) take all necessary steps to negotiate the terms of and enter into the initial Flow Down Agreement and a Collaboration Agreement and 'agree the terms of offer letters with WECA and thereafter draw down funding to prepare Delivery Plans for the relevant Infrastructure Items for which the Council is to be responsible (including procuring and awarding contracts in excess of £0.5m) October 2022 Cabinet Decisions
Since October there have been detailed negotiations over the terms of the Collaboration Agreement and Flow Down Agreement between all the parties. The final version of the Collaboration Agreement (CA) has now been settled. Its key terms have not departed from the outline in the Cabinet report. The parties have agreed that, whilst an FDA is required to satisfy, HE requirements, it is premature to commit to a full blown FDA at this early stage; not being required in reality until DP approval.
The Northern Entrance and Southern Gateway projects are 'Infrastructure Items' included within the grant funding bid, and work is required to develop designs for these projects up to RIBA Stage 3; this will form a key input for the Delivery Plan for these projects. This Officer Executive Decision enables the Council to enter into contract with the Strategic Partner for design work relating to RIBA Stages 2 and 3 for these projects. The TQ Directors Board, at its meetings on 9 and 23 November 2022, and the parties in subsequent discussion, have, in order to maintain progress with these two projects, (and albeit in advance of the formal Offer Letter from WECA) approved these proposals and confirmed the principle that the funding for the contract will be met from the BIL. Commissioning these services does not commit the Council to assuming responsibility for implementation of either project.

(a) To conclude the Collaboration Agreement (with WECA, NR and HE) and Flow Down agreement (with WECA) in accordance with Cabinet Decision in October 2022, in order to access Brownfield Investment Funding.
(b) To enter a contract with the Council’s Capital Strategic Partner, Arcadis in partnership with Mott Macdonald and ARUP for professional services related to design of the Northern Entrance and new Southern Gateway at Bristol Temple Meads Station for RIBA Stages 2 and 3.

Due to tight timescales the decision was taken to submit the bid, and if it is successful, retrospective approval will be sought from Cabinet in May as it was not possible to seek cabinet approval before submitting the bid.
The cabinet member for Transport and S151 officer were consulted.

To agree the submission of the Bristol Active Trave Fund tranche 4 (ATF4) bid by WECA to the DfT - which if successful, will result in Bristol receiving funding to deliver infrastructure which supports improved walking and cycling.
The funding share for Bristol is up to a maximum amount of £2,968,204.

Bristol City Council wishes to appoint an experienced Fire Safety Consultant to carry out Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs). The objective of the FRA’s is to assess measures that facilitate the protection of people from fire and to advise on compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The Procurement Route selected for this project was: further Competition using an existing Framework Agreement (Procurement For Housing: Fire Safety Consultancy Framework – Lot 1)
The tender was evaluated according to the published evaluation criteria.
After completing the quality and social value scoring and adding this to price weighting, the most economically advantageous tender received was from Fire Compliance Management Services Ltd.

To award the contact for Fire Risk Assessments to Fire Compliance Management Service Ltd.

This Framework Agreement is to allow Bristol City Council, Fleet Services to provide a comprehensive tyre service in the event of breakdowns or routine replacements being required.

To award the contract for the Supply and Fitting of Tyres and Associated Services.
The proposed procurement route was an Open Procedure exercise. This is the most appropriate way to ensure best value for public money because this would allow the opportunity for local SMEs to bid for this work. The new Contract will be awarded to these types of organisations. In particular, one of the major requirements of this tender is for the Contractor to be able to provide quick responses to Bristol City Council to ensure good utilisation times for its vehicles.

In January 2022, a funding bid was submitted to WECA for £500k – along with two other housing providers in the region (Curo and Brighter Places).
The bid is to support a scheme to retrofit 25 Bristol City Council properties using the whole-house retrofit approach to PAS 2035, which provides guaranteed performance and comfort for tenants and a real energy cost saving.
The funding is made up as follows:
o£200,000 confirmed grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
o£300,000 from the Combined Authority’s Green Recovery Fund,
The application for funding of £500k under the Innovative Housing Retrofit Scheme has been awarded from the Green Recovery Fund Grant.
Due to the value of the funding and need to enter into agreements and in order to deliver the grant funded outcomes, an Officer Executive Decision will be required now that the application is successful.
The purpose of this is to make the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Housing aware of a grant funding opportunity and to seek agreement to be part of an approved funding application.

To accept a grant of £500k from the WECA Green Recovery Fund to be used on the Easiform pilot being delivered by Ameresco and managed by Specialist project Team which will retrofit 25 Bristol City Council properties using the whole-house retrofit approach to PAS 2035, which provides guaranteed performance and comfort for tenants and a real energy cost saving.

The Dept for Transport announced the Active Travel Revenue funding allocations for 22/23. This funding source follows on from the Local Authority Capability Fund 21/22. The decision to accept this funding via WECA has allowed the council to continue with the delivery of supporting the development of infrastructure schemes; support access to new and existing employment, education and training; actively promote increased levels of physical activity through walking, cycling linked to the delivery of effective infrastructure and to raise the profile of cycling and walking within authorities.

Decision to accept the funding award from the West of England Combined Authority for the delivery of the Active Travel Capability and Ambition Fund 22-23. The total value over 1 year is £338,647.

To enable Bristol City Council to implement the Bristol Heat Pump Ready and accelerate the installation of heat pumps in the city to contribute to delivery of BCC’s Climate Emergency Action Plan and the One City Climate Strategy.

Bristol City Council has secured funding from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for the Bristol Heat Pump Ready Phase 2 Project. This decision is to accept that funding and enter into contract with BEIS. On 1 November 2022 Cabinet Approved the submission of the Bid and on 7 February 2023 Cabinet authorised the Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member Climate, Ecology, Energy and Waste; and S151 Officer, to, if successful, take all steps required to enter into contract with BEIS to accept and spend the funding of up to £3.3m..”