The Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme has taken another major step towards commencing construction with approval of the Full Business Case by HM Treasury. The FBC sets out a detailed case for investing in the project, and had to demonstrate that the scheme is deliverable, affordable and provides value for money. News of the sign off by central government has just been publicly announced by the Environment Agency in its latest OFAS newsletter.

The Environment Agency have also announced that the contractors appointed to build the scheme are the UK company GRAHAM. Their appointment followed a public procurement process earlier in the year.

With these further pillars in place the project team is now preparing for the pre-construction phase, securing outstanding approvals – including finalizing the planning agreement – and beginning a process of public engagement. A range of ecological baseline studies have been completed this year with others in process.

OFA welcomes the progress being made. A great deal of hard work has gone into securing the business case approval, both from the project team and partners. OFA will be contributing to the public liaison activities going forward, and we are continuing our butterfly surveying as a contribution to the ecological data being collected. During the summer we met with the ecologist carrying out invertebrate studies in the scheme area and shared the data we have gathered so far.

More details about progress with OFAS are available in the scheme newsletter available here.