Paul Hickey, Managing Director of the RAPID programme, has agreed a request from the sponsors of the Grand Union Canal and Minworth Strategic Resource Options (SRO), collectively referred to as the Grand Union Canal Transfer (GUCT) project.

He confirmed the change in a letter dated 6 January following a written request dated 21st November 2024 to delay the Gate 3 submission date signed by Natasha Coackley, Head of Strategic Resource Options, Affinity Water Frank Thompson, Strategic Resource Programme Lead at Severn Trent and Peter Walker, Head of Strategic Infrastructure Projects at Canal & River Trust.

The GUCT is a joint water transfer project between the two water companies and the charity that owns and cares for the canal network in England & Wales.

According to the letter, the request followed on from previous discussions between the GUCT and RAPID on Gate 3 timings.

Paul Hickey summarises the justification for the date change in his reply as follows:

The request for additional time for gate three would allow:

• The Direct procurement for customers (DPC) stage 2 submission to be submitted prior to gate three and accepted by Ofwat;
• Sequencing of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Scoping Report and gate three submission;
• The inclusion of a summary of the Non Statutory Consultation (NSC) findings in the gate three submission.

“I consider these needs to be reasonable and agree to a gate three submission date of May 2025,” Hickey writes.

He goes on to point out that the gate three guidance requires that non-statutory consultation has been completed and statutory pre-planning consultation for Development Consent Order (DCO) solutions is underway, or equivalent for local planning. by gate three.

The letter states:

“Gate three of the RAPID programme represents an important checkpoint on the way to the solution being prepared for the Development Consent Order (DCO). You should use the additional time to make sure your gate three submission will meet regulators expectations and to prepare a quality and complete submission. We also expect actions set at gate two to have been addressed in full at the gate three submission.”

RAPID has also accepted the sponsors’ suggestion to continue with the original date of Gate 3 submission (December 2024) for funding purposes.

Hickey concludes:

“Any spend between January 2025 and May 2025 will be considered as early Gate 4 spend. The blind year adjustment will ensure that this early Gate 4 spending is properly accounted for and reconciled in line with the funding arrangements.

“I am pleased to see that the movement of the gate three submission date will not in itself impact on the overall timing of the water into supply date for 2032.”