Last reviewed: 31.1.2012 - 6.35pm
We have provided a step by step guide to help understand the process followed to develop our draft final Water Resources Management Plan 2009.
The main steps are outlined below.
1. Stakeholder and customer research
Since 2007 we have asked our customers, stakeholders and regulatory bodies for their views through detailed research, customer surveys, and regular meetings to inform our draft plan.
2. Publication of our draft plan
In May 2008 we published our draft Water Resources Management Plan for 2010 to 2035.
3. Public consultation
Water companies have a statutory duty to carry out a public consultation on their draft plans to understand the views and priorities of customers and other stakeholders. In May 2008 we launched a 16-week public consultation on our draft plan.
Events were held in Reading and London to encourage participation in the consultation. In addition, a series of exhibitions were held in Oxfordshire for local residents.
4. Taking on board the views of consultees
In February 2009 we published our Statement of Response, which outlined the consideration given to the representations received from the public consultation on the draft plan, the changes made to the draft plan after considering the representations, and the reasons for the changes and where we did not make any changes to the draft plan after considering the representations, and our reasons.
5. Consideration of our draft plan by Secretary of State
Following review of our draft plan and Statement of Response, as well as taking into account advice from technical experts and the responses to the public consultation, in August 2009 the Secretary of State announced his decision to hold a public inquiry on our draft plan.
6. Revised draft plan
In September 2009 we published our revised draft plan, which is an updated version of our draft plan that takes account the views of our stakeholders.
7. Public inquiry
A five-week public inquiry was held in Oxford from June to August 2010 on our draft plan.
8. Inspector's findings
In March 2011 Defra published the Inspector’s report on the outcome of the inquiry. The Inspector concluded that our plan did not meet statutory requirements. Following consultation with the EA and other stakeholders, in May Defra confirmed what changes we needed to make to our draft plan (WRMP09) and what we needed to consider for our next plan (WRMP14).
9. Preparation of the draft final Plan
We have worked with stakeholders during the period to amend the draft Plan. Key steps in this process are outlined below.
Our work plan
Following publication of a draft work plan and subsequent stakeholder consultation and comment upon on it, we formulated and published a Final Work Plan setting out how we intended to amend our revised draft Water Resources Management Plan. in accordance with Defra’s instructions. This is available to download below.
We published a draft work plan in July 2011 for stakeholder review and comment. We received comments from 22 stakeholders.
We have considered the comments received and in the Statement of Response available to download below, we have explained the consideration given to the comments received, changes made to the work plan as a result of the comments and, where no changes have been made, the reasons for this.
A copy of this statement and the final work plan has been sent to Defra.
In order to keep stakeholders up to date with the work to amend our draft WRMP09 we have committed to provide technical notes at key stages in the process.
Stakeholder update note 1: Feasible options list and approach to programme appraisal
We published a technical note on 22 August covering the revised feasible options list and the approach we intend to follow on the programme appraisal. We received a number of comments on the note. The note and Statement of Response are available to download below.
- WRMP09 - Interim stakeholder note 1 (0.13Mb)
- WRMP09 - Statement of Response - stakeholder note 1 (0.1Mb)
Stakeholder update note 2: Initial results of the programme appraisal
We published a technical note on 24 October to provide an update on the technical work underway to determine the preferred water resource programme for London and Swindon & Oxfordshire Water Resource Zones. The document sets out the initial results from the programme appraisal and the appraisal methodology followed. This note is available to download below
SEA and HRA
We consulted statutory consultees, Natural England, English Heritage, Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Environmental Bodies and the EA on the approach and amendments to the SEA and HRA
10. Public consultation on the draft final Plan
We launched a public consultation on the draft final Plan on 12 December 2011, this ran until 31 January 2012.
11. Statement of Response and final WRMP09
In March 2012 We will publish a Statement of Response, which will outline the consideration given to the representations received from the public consultation , the changes made to the draft final plan after considering the representations, and the reasons for changes and where we did not make any changes after considering the representations, and our reasons.
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