Working with others – North Kent catchment

We have worked with a wide range of organisations with responsibilities for drainage, flooding and protection of the environment whilst developing our DWMP. The organisations we worked with in the North Kent River Basin Catchment include:

 

  • Kent County Council
  • Medway Internal Drainage Board
  • Medway Council
  • Swale Borough Council
  • The Environment Agency
  • The Medway Swale Estuary Partnership
  • The South East Rivers Trust
  • South East Water

Working together to co-create the DWMP is important. Our drainage and wastewater systems are often inter-connected with the systems managed and operated by others and affect the natural environments within the catchment.

A wide range of issues and concerns have been raised and discussed throughout the development of the DWMP for North Kent. We are progressing these issues through the development of the DWMP as set out in our investment needs for North Kent. Further, we commit to working with others to co-develop and co-deliver schemes that meet multi-organisational objectives and which benefit the environment, our customers and communities.

We developed and ran a series of activities between 2020 and 2022 as we prepared our DWMP for North Kent. The dates and purpose of the various webinars, workshops, meetings on individual wastewater systems and interim consultation were as follows:

The dates and purpose of the webinars and meetings

Date

Regional webinar / River Basin Workshop / system meeting

Purpose

25 Aug 20

Regional Webinar

What is a DWMP? Background and purpose

03 Sep 20

Regional Webinar

11 Sep 20

Rother

Discuss the Risk Based Catchment Screening and Planning Objectives

16 Dec 20

Regional Webinar

Disseminate the BRAVA results for the National Planning Objectives

07 Jan 21

Regional Webinar

Jan – Mar 21

Meetings with NE and EA

Develop the BRAVA methodologies for NN, GES, Surface Water, Groundwater & Bathing and Shellfish Waters. 

23 Mar 21

Regional Webinar

Disseminate the BRAVA results for the additional Planning Objectives included in our DWMP

31 Mar 21

Regional Webinar

19 May 21

Rother

To explore the risks and potential investment options

Aug – Oct 21

41 wastewater catchment meetings covering 61 systems

To agree generic investment options

17 Aug 21

Rye

To discuss an appropriate investment strategy for each wastewater system, identify the options to manage and reduce the risks.

02 Sep 21

Fairlight

Sep – Oct 21

Interim consultation

To gain feedback on the SEA Scoping Report, the DWMP Processes and engagement and the  emerging plans for each RBC

01 Dec 21

Regional Webinar

Water industry funding

06 Dec 21

Regional Webinar

20 Jan 22

Regional Webinar

EA partnership funding

08 Mar 22

Rother

To discuss and agree in principle the Investment needs

The regionally based webinars presented and discussed issues and information relevant across the whole or our operating region. You can view the presentations used in the webinars on our Who we’re working with page.

The presentations we discussed at the North Kent  workshops are below:

 

Workshop 1
Held in September 2020, participants discussed the findings of the risk based catchment screening and proposed additional planning objectives for the DWMP. Workshop slides.

 

Workshop 2
Held in May 2021, participants:

  1. discussed the results from the BRAVA risk assessments and the proposed investment strategy for the wastewater catchments within the River Basin
  2. identified the generic options that should be explored to address the identified risks, and
  3. discussed which wastewater catchments to progress through the Options Development and Appraisal stage of the DWMP. Workshop slides.

 

Workshop 3
Held in March 2022, we reviewed and discussed the draft investment programme for the River Basin Catchment. This included the types of investment, priorities and timing for investment needs and the wider opportunities arising from the proposed investment in terms of partnership projects and catchment wide solutions providing multiple benefits. Workshop slides.

You can view the findings from our interim consultation.