DD1502 Charlton to Crayford Integrated Water Management Strategy

1.1 London faces the dichotomy of being at risk of flooding from heavy rainfall, as well as being at risk of water supply interruptions from prolonged droughts. To ensure that new development minimises any increase in these risks, the London Plan sets out a range of policies - 5.3 (sustainable development), 5.13 (sustainable drainage), 5.14 (water quality and wastewater infrastructure) and 5.15 (water use and supplies) – to encourage new development to be water efficient and manage surface water run-off, through a range of location, design and management measures.

1.2 The London Plan (2015) identifies four ‘Opportunity Areas’ (OAs) within the IWMS project area – Charlton Riverside, Woolwich, Abbey Wood and Thamesmead, and Bexley Riverside. In 2015, the Mayor published City in the East, setting out the vision for workspaces for 14,500 new jobs and 41,500 new homes to be built in in the area.

1.3 The IWMS is being developed to inform the development of planning frameworks for the area: The RB Greenwich is developing an Opportunity Area Planning Framework (OAPF) for Charlton Riverside for publication this summer and the LB Bexley is revising its Growth Strategy, which will act as the OAPF for the Bexley Riverside Opportunity Areas.

1.4 Initial discussions with Thames Water regarding the capacity of existing infrastructure in the IWMS project area suggests that both the water supply and wastewater drainage infrastructure is unlikely to be sufficient to meet the demands of the projected growth. Most of the IWMS project area is outside Thames Water’s ring main and local resource options are expected to be insufficient, so unless potable water demands can be sufficiently managed, very extensive water supply infrastructure upgrades will be required.

1.5 In addition, much of the IWMS project area is significantly below average sea level today (6 metres below average high tide at Thamesmead) and relies upon an extensive network of flood walls, lakes, waterways and pumping stations to manage its current flood risk. There are some areas of significant and extensive surface water flood risk in Charlton, Thamesmead, Abbey Wood, Belvedere and Slade Green, and areas of potential fluvial flood risk along the River Cray and River Darrent.

1.6 Other than Charlton (which sits astride the Thames Barrier), the whole of the IWMS project area is outside the protection of Thames Barrier, but within the Thames tidal defences. The Thames Estuary 2100 Programme sets out the tidal flood risk management plan for the whole of the estuary and so includes the IWMS project area.

1.7 There is therefore an urgent need to understand, plan and implement new infrastructure to manage flood risk and increase water supply security in a way that supports new development and enhances the quality of life of current and future residents and employees in the IWMS project area

1.8 The scope of the project has been developed in collaboration with the project’s funders. These organisations, together with the GLA will form the project’s steering group that will work with the appointed consultants to achieve the objectives of the project.

2.1 The aim of the IWMS is to provide spatial planning and technical recommendations on managing the flood risk, water security, water quality and drainage challenges to inform the OAPFs for the area. This has been shown through previous IWMSs to be more effective and lead to more sustainable, cost effective outcomes than trying to retrofit the recommendations at a later stage.

3.1 The IWMS will consider the needs of all the equality groups as required by the GLA’s equality duty.

a) Key risks: The risks resulting from commissioning the IWMS are:
Financial risk:
This will be limited and managed as:
- The financial security of the appointed consultants will be assessed as part of the procurement process. The GLA will appoint the consultants through a competitive tender from an appropriate TfL framework.
- All funding partners will be required to make their contributions towards the project’s costs before the first stage is complete, so the GLA will not be exposed to the risk of not being able to pay for the work.
- The consultants will only be paid in arrears for each stage, once the required output is of acceptable quality.
Reputational risk
- This is limited as the GLA’s role is to support boroughs in undertaking strategic planning and ensuring that London’s growth is sustainable. As noted below, this strategy will help achieve those aims.

b) Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
- The London Plan has identified the Opportunity Areas covered by the IWMS as priority development areas.
- The Mayor’s Infrastructure Plan has demonstrated the need for a more integrated approach to managing water issues and recommends undertaking IWMS to inform development proposals at the earliest possible stage.
- The Mayor’s Adaptation Strategy and Water Strategy

c) Impact assessments and consultations
- Through reviewing the flood risk assessments undertaken by the boroughs and the Environment Agency, and assessing the capacity of the water infrastructure to cope with future demands, the IWMS is effectively undertaking an impact assessment to inform the respective OAPFs.
- A Steering Group involving key professional stakeholders will be formed to advise and support the consultants in undertaking this work. The draft IWMS will be consulted upon with a wider group of stakeholders as part of its development and the recommendations from the draft IWMS will be consulted upon through the public consultation of the OAPFs.

5.1 Executive Director’s approval is being sought for expenditure of up to £60,000 to appoint consultants through the TfL frameworks to undertake an integrated water management study (IWMS) an area from Charlton to Crayford to inform the Opportunity Area and other planning frameworks being developed for the area.

5.2 This expenditure will be funded as follow;
• £10,000 from GLA Environment Programme budget or Environment’s 2016-17 Drain London reserves,
• £15,000 from Royal Borough of Greenwich,
• £15,000 from London Borough of Bexley; and
• £20,000 from Thames Water Utilities Ltd.

5.3 All the delivery and spend will take place within 2016-17 and officers should ensure that they enter into grant agreement with the above funders to agree their contribution. Invoices to the three organisations for their funding should also be raised in a timely manner before paying consultants.

6.1 Sections 1 – 4 of this report indicate that:

6.1.1 the decisions requested of the Director (in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code) fall within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, and the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and

6.1.2 in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people (further details on equalities are set out in section 3 above) and to the duty under section 149 of the 2010 Act to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not ;

• consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

• consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2 Officers have indicated in this report that the services are to be procured from an appropriate framework in accordance with relevant procurement law. Transport for London Procurement will determine the detail of the procurement strategy to be adopted in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.

Officers must ensure that appropriate “call-off” documentation is put in place and executed by the successful bidder(s) and the GLA before the commencement of the services.

6.3 Officers should ensure that appropriate documentation is put in place and executed with the partners providing funding before any reliance is placed on such funding and the position on GLA's liability in respect of project management is clearly addressed.