Borough Communications Support Programme

Guidance Notes for Waste Authorities SubmittingApplications

  1. Overview of Fund

Through the LWARB funded Borough Communications Support (BCS) programme, grant funding and advisory support is available to London Waste Authorities to deliver communications activity aimed at improving the performance of recycling and re-use services.

Funding is available specifically for the delivery of communications activity that supports Borough services and specifically for the following types of project:

  • New Services – including the roll out of new services and the introduction of new materials to existing recycling collections
  • Low Performing areas – for exampleprojects aimed at improving participation in services, improving capture rates, targeting low performing areas and estates.
  • Re-use – including the roll out of new re-use services and improving participation in existing services.
  • Contamination – improving the quality of material collected through reducing contamination rates.

This guidance note provides information on the funding availableand how to apply and should be read in conjunction with the associated application form.

  1. Support available

Over £400,000 of communications grant funding was allocated to Waste Authorities in 2013/14, and approximately £100,000 remains to be allocated in this financial year.

The remaining funding will be allocated on a competitive basis through a single round. The deadline for receipt of applications is Monday 30th June 2014. It is anticipated that funding will be awarded to waste Authorities by the end of July 2014 and that all projects will be rolled out by the end of December 2014.

There will be no limit to the amount of funding that can be requested by any individual Authority (up to the maximum of £100,000 available). Funding requested cannot be used in place of internal communication budgets or to fund core communication activity.

Projects will be evaluated on the basis of

  • the amount of additional waste tonnage that is recycled or re-used;
  • value for money (tonnage/£); and
  • ability to deliver savings for Authorities through avoided disposal costs.

LWARB will NOT consider providing communications funding for the following projects

  • Commercial waste and recycling collections.
  • Waste prevention projects;
  • Projects relating to final disposal
  • Borough incentive schemes (due the number funded in London through the DCLG Weekly Collection Support Scheme);

In addition, funding is not available for the monitoring and evaluation of projects.

If you would like to discuss your project before making an applicationor if you have any queries on the application process then please contact Ella Clarke at WRAP on 07540

  1. Requirements for funding

Waste authorities making an application for funding mustinclude the following:

  • Provision of service: Communicationsfunding is available to local authorities to support new or existing recycling and re-use services. A service can be a householddryorganics collection, HWRC, or bulky waste reuse and recycling, service.
  • Project performance monitoring:Evaluation and monitoring is key to assessing the impact of individual projects. Although no funding is available for the evaluation of these projects, it is expected that Boroughs will outline a clear plan for pre and post intervention monitoring and evaluation in their application and that this will form part of the formal evaluation of projects.

Boroughs will needto provide baseline data to evidence their project, for example demonstrating an understanding of where and what the low performance issues are, and the likely reasons for these.

  • Value for Money:The value for money score will be based on the tonnage of additional waste diverted per annum per LWARB £ invested.
  • Communications:Please note that all projects that receive BCS funding must use Recycle Now campaign materials, including the Recycle for London (or localised equivalent) icon and the national material stream icons. WRAP Project Managers will be able to provide communications advice, and all artwork associated with the campaign must be submitted for approval prior to production.
  1. How to apply

Borough Communications Support funding is available to London waste authorities. Interested waste authorities should complete the Application Form and send it to with ‘Borough Communications Support Application’ as the email subject. Applications must be received by 5.00pm on 30th June 2014.

  1. Timetable

The timetable for the Fund is set out below:

Action / Date/Deadline
Final round of funding launched / 2 June 2014
Application deadline / 30 June 2014
Clarification/Scoping of projects by WRAP / 1 July – 18 July 2014
Evaluation of projects / End July 2014
Funding approvals by LWARB / End July 2014
Funding agreements issued to successful projects / 8 August 2014
Deadline for delivery of all projects / 31 December 2014
  1. Assessing the applications

Authorities will be evaluated against the key criteria listed below on the basis of the information provided in the Application Form and through the clarification process.

The overall evaluation will be made of 4 key areas

  1. Value for Money(VFM) (40%)– includes waste diverted per LWARB £ and ability to delivery financial savings for waste authorities through avoided disposal costs.
  2. Project viability (20%)
  3. Monitoring and Evaluation methodology (20%)
  4. Commitment to the project – legacy, member approval, support from communications team, in-kind support/internal funding (20%).

The funding decision will be made as follows:

  • Review and evaluation by the WRAP Borough Communications Support team and WRAP technical advisers.
  • Recommendations and final approval by LWARB.
  1. Contracting

WRAP will discuss a funding and support packaging with each of the successful waste authorities. All successful authorities will be issued with a Grant Funding Agreement that they will need to sign and return to WRAP. The funding agreement will include a detailed communications activity table with agreed milestones to be delivered by the appropriate deadline. Please note that funding will be provided to authorities in arrears of spend and will be claimed from WRAP through submission of a monitoring form and evidence of spend.

Funding will be claimed every six months, although this arrangement can be flexible and as such will be agreed with each authority.

  1. Monitoring

All funded projects will be expected to complete monitoring forms on a 6 monthly basis (or in line with funding claims), including the submission of a final written report at the point of project completion.