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Government Sources
The individual
governments within the EU have been given the task of setting up national
networks for air pollution to comply with the Framework and subsequent daughter
directives. Approaches can be made to government for joint training, provision
of equipment and on site operation of their equipment. Everyone is looking to
trim budgets and this approach can work where government agencies are prepared
to work with cities.
Government Contracts
Cities should not be
prevented from bidding to take part in government monitoring activities. Being
‘on the spot’ the cities can provide local eyes and ears for monitoring
exercises run on the governments behalf by consultancies or other agencies. Joint City / Government partnerships are to be promoted as a forward
step.
Local Government
Contracts
Neighbouring local
authorities can club together to jointly fund monitoring campaigns across their
region and can appoint the skilled resources jointly that cannot be justified
by individual authorities. Savings can be made by joint purchases attracting
discounts and similarly joint servicing contracts again attracting savings and
a single regional standard.
Private Contracts
The same local site
operator service can also offered to private concerns that are required to
monitor or model in terms of their planning consents. This may or may not
include the provision and or operation of the monitoring equipment. There may
be a slight conflict of interest here depending whether this is within or
outside the city boundary and local rules may apply.
Development
Agreements
Where planning is not
appropriate or as a contingency to pay for mitigation measures it may be possible
to enter agreements with the developer on major plans to cover monitoring and
mitigation measures over 5 to 10 years into the future. Large sums 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.
Funding can however tie
in more closely with locally needed projects so that external funding pays a
high proportion of your project costs.
Commercial
Sponsorship
In a few limited cases commercial
sponsorship may be sought for particular items of equipment. This is
particularly appropriate where you have a major supplier in your city where you
are willing to ‘showcase’ the equipment supplied. In some cases ‘associations’
of polluters may be prepared to sponsor or provide equipment or resources. |