Defra have awarded a contract to Mott MacDonald to review implementation of the Floods and Water Management Act (FWMA) 2010 in England, in particular the risk designation process, and also to review what evidence is available which might justify commencement of the reduction in the threshold to small raised reservoirs (SRR) between 10,000 and 25,000m3.

The project has three aims:

1. Evaluate the impact of the changes in the FWMA 2010 in relation to large raised reservoirs, in particular the risk designation process.
2. Provide evidence on the number of SRR, and level of risk posed by these reservoirs.
3. Review the existing methodology, including considerations of probability and exemptions of certain reservoir types.

An Inception meeting was held on 30 June 2017, with further Advisory Group meetings for Aims 1 and 2 on 01 September 2017, 19 January 2018 and 22 June 2018. Depending on the outcome from this work, Aim 3 may be included as Stage 2 of the project, with completion in November 2018.

The project is being led by James Penman and Alan Warren of Mott MacDonald, with the Advisory Group including Alan Brown, Robert Mann, Newman Booth, Ian Hope and Craig Goff, and they would be happy to answer queries or discuss the project.

Article by the BDS representative: Alan Brown: alan.brown@stillwater-associates.com