In accordance with established departmental procurement policy, the treatment plant element of the scheme is being provided under a public private partnership, PPP, employing the design, build and operate model, DBO. The decision to adopt DBO procurement in this case accords with the outcome of the PPP applicability assessment undertaken by the council itself as part of the standard procurement process for water services projects. The assessment, which considered the issues of cost, performance, time and risk in detail concluded that the DBO approach offered the optimum prospect of an innovative, reliable and economical procurement solution. The treatment plant contract is a significant one, involving an increase in the capacity of the existing plant from a population equivalent of 20,000 to 35,000 people.