Cambridge City Council - Watercourse Maintenance contract 2019-2022

The Council requires a contractor to deliver a comprehensive watercourse maintenance programme. The purpose of the maintenance is to ensure that the watercourse are free from blockages and substantial weed growth, thus increasing channel flow and reducing flood risk. The service required comprises the planned maintenance work and a 24hour emergency blockage removal service. The majority of the maintenance work will be carried out between the beginning of September to the end February i.e. outside the bird nesting season. The city council manages approximately 25 km of open watercourse and approximately one km of piped watercourse. Two watercourse are from chalk springs, Cherry Hinton Brook which has a spring head at the "Giant's Grave" within the city boundary and Hobsons Brook which has a Spring Head at the Nine Wells Nature reserve which is 400 m outside the city boundary. The City Council managers Bin Brook within the City Boundary on behalf of the Environment Agency. Bin Brook has at catchment of approximately 18km2 of mainly agricultural land. The remaining open watercourses collect surface water runoff from within the city boundaries and forms a water conveyance network with Anglian Water surface water sewers to convey the surface water runoff safely to the River Cam. The Cambridge City Council also manages the Hobsons Brook and Hobsons Conduit which historically were the Cambridge City water supply, on behalf of the Hobsons Trustees.