diff --git a/backend/README.md b/backend/README.md
index 1d87774d..4d5a68ef 100644
--- a/backend/README.md
+++ b/backend/README.md
@@ -102,6 +102,28 @@ run the following command with your aws access token exported into your environm
 docker run -p 8000:8000 -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY -e AWS_DEFAULT_REGION fastapi-local-image:latest
 ```
 
+## Emulating the lambda locally
+
+I have set up a script called `run_local_lambda.sh` which will allow you to emulate the lambda locally.
+You need to have a .env file with the necessary environment variables at backend/env and also
+and aws credentials file at ~/.aws/credentials, locally.
+
+To run this, firstly run:
+
+```bash
+chmod +x run_local_lambda.sh
+```
+
+Now you can run the script with
+
+```
+./run_lambda_local.sh
+```
+
+Then run the script with the following command:
+
+```commandline
+
 ## Testing
 
 To run tests, run the following command from the root of the project directory:
diff --git a/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile b/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile
index 41b7db34..35c62260 100644
--- a/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/docker/lambda.Dockerfile
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ WORKDIR /var/task/Model
 
 # Install system dependencies
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y make gcc g++ gfortran libgfortran-9-dev liblapack-dev libamd2 libcholmod3 \
-    libmetis-dev libsuitesparse-dev libnauty2-dev git wget
+    libmetis-dev libsuitesparse-dev libnauty2-dev git wget pkgconf
 
 # Compile CBC for arm64
 RUN mkdir -p ~/build && cd ~/build \
diff --git a/run_lambda_local.sh b/run_lambda_local.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755