Swale is one of 12 districts (boroughs and cities) which make up the county of Kent. Located on the county’s northern coast, the borough sits between Medway, Maidstone and Canterbury, around 60km from central London in one direction and 40km from the Channel tunnel in the other. The borough covers an area of 360km2, roughly one-tenth of Kent, and is home to just under 150,000 people, also approximately one-tenth of the county figure.

For such a relatively small area, the borough is a remarkably diverse place, including the historic market town of Faversham, the traditional seaside resort of Sheerness and the more industrial market town of Sittingbourne, which in recent years has been the focus of major council-led redevelopment. These urban centres are connected both physically and culturally by the borough’s extensive and important rural areas, accounting for around a quarter of the population, which take in a number of protected wildlife habitats and part of the Kent Downs area of outstanding natural beauty.

Swale Borough Council is currently seeking quotations for consultancy advice relating to an attenuation pond that will be transferred to the authority along with a countryside gap as part of a new housing development.

The Council would like suitably qualified sustainable drainage engineers/consultants to undertake a review of the planning documents, design drawings and capacity calculations. This needs to take into account highways drainage and other water calculations and any other hydrology/geology reports and evidence.

We would also like to understand the downstream impact of the pond and the concerns of residents that could be impacted along with considerations that the Council will need to make for future management of the pond.

The planning application case number is 19/502176/FULL the details of which can be found at the following ;

http://pa.midkent.gov.uk/onlineapplications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage

We would like the work carried out as soon as possible after the brief submission so please can you state availability for June and July 2021.

Specifically, the outputs of the brief include;

1. a desktop study of the relevant documents

2. meetings with stakeholders (County and Borough Council officers and Councillors, parish councillors, selected interested parties from the nearby Mill and properties downstream). We envisage a minimum of 4 no. virtual stakeholder meetings to start with.

3. Site meeting(s) and survey to assess the construction and levels on site

4. A written report on your findings

5. A ‘future management consideration’ report

The contract will be monitored at milestones agreed following appointment but please allow for written updates monthly and fortnightly virtual conference calls.

Quotations need to set out the following information;

a) Your qualifications/experience

b) Evidence of previous similar commissions with references

c) How many days you would allocate to each output numbered above

d) Your day rate/fixed fee (if fixed fee please suggest day rate for any additional work that is required following investigation)

e) Your availability to undertake the work (please state specific dates)

Evaluation of quotations will be d upon a) to e) above.

Quotations will be open for two weeks after published with the deadline for submissions on 21 June 2021 at 17:00pm.