Introduction
Bristol is fairly well funded in managing
our core network of continuous and sampling sites. Over the years this has been just enough to operate the
sites without allowing for replacement equipment or regular and routine
maintenance. The budget runs only
therefore to about 70% of the full operating costs. We therefore have to raise income to cover
these additional costs and to raise money for investment in new equipment.
This short paper describes briefly several of the funding
streams we use to boost our budget. Not
all methods will be appropriate to all cities and I am sure other cities will
also have additional methods available to them.
Discussion
Government Grants The UK has adopted supplementary credit
approvals and now sce’s as the means by which local
government pays for local air quality management(LAQM). We place a bid every year for new equipment,
which after a couple of years specific use in LAQM is
then available to replace ageing monitors in the core network. Grants have also been awarded to resource
pollution forecasting and cross border strategy and action plan development.
Government Contracts In the UK most local site operation of
government sites is by competetive tender. We have the advantage of operating our own
sites and being right here in the locality for bidding for local
contracts. We set an hourly charge based
on total income divided by total available hours which makes a significant
contribution over the salary cost but is cheaper than private
consultancies. We therefore win and
operate the government sites for Bristol.
Local Government Contracts We operate many more sites than
neighbouring authorities and offer them the service of Local site operators
operating to AURN status(Government Site) and using the same gases to traceable
standards over the whole network. By
having dedicated personnel we are able to provide this service at just over
cost with our overheads covered.
Private Contracts The same service but on government
contract terms is also offered to private concerns that are required to monitor
or model in terms of their planning consents.
There may be a slight conflict of interest here but we have not so far
encountered any real problems whether this is within or outside our boundaries.
Sec 106 Agreements Where planning is not appropriate or as
a contingency to pay for mitigation measures we enter into agreements on major
plans to cover monitoring and mitigation measures over 5 to 10 years. Large sums £500,000 are
usually involved with mitigation being triggered by monitoring paid for by the
developer.
European Projects Although in general only items triggered
by the project can be charged there is usually a management fee or overhead
that helps contribute to general running costs.
This element usually is settled at the outset of the project and may be
in the range of 5 to 15%. Some external
training projects pay almost the full cost of providing trainers including
their hourly rate.
Commercial Sponsorship In a few limited cases we have
sought commercial sponsorship for particular items of equipment like our first
mobile laboratory etc.
Recommendations
Look for
all possible funding sources. Sources
can be difficult to acquire but once acquired may last
for a number of years without too much additional effort.
It can
take several years for new sources to come on stream so you must look and plan
ahead. Occasionally funding is only paid
out at the end of a project and not when expenditure is actually being made.
Think
originality, never mind it hasn’t been done before!
Conclusion
Look for
and use whatever funding sources come your way provided they aid the work you
do rather than hinder it. |