Integrated Water Management Study - AWARD

Milton Keynes Council is preparing an evidence base for the development of its new Local Plan and implementation of the MK 2050 Strategy. The Council is looking to appoint a suitably qualified consultant to carry out an Integrated Water Management Study (IWMS) including Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA).

The studies will investigate all aspects of the water environment and ensure that water infrastructure can be managed sustainably alongside the level of growth being identified as the Local Plan is developed, with consideration of the possible challenges posed by climate change.

The studies will help Milton Keynes Council improve our understanding of flood risk management within the study area and the interactions between the surface water drainage, fluvial networks, potable, non-potable water and wastewater networks.

The purpose of the SFRA is to inform the decision makers' knowledge of flooding, refine the information on existing flood maps and determine the variations in flood risk from all sources of flooding across and from the area. Those will form the basis for preparing policies for flood risk management. The SFRA will inform the Sustainability Appraisal (incorporating the SEA Directive) of the Local Plan and will provide the basis from which to apply the Sequential Test and Exception Test in the development allocation and development control process.

A robust evidence base will support and promote the wider understanding of integrated water management in the Borough and is essential for developing and adopting local planning policies, supporting other strategies and project across the Council and with partners, and enabling sustainable growth of the Borough through to 2050.