diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 491d4a859bcc2c1bf31636ab004f30169cd7a48d..499992a5d5f8c9a614f17f7a267f68f8c962d8bd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ docker exec -ti ldv-specification python manage.py migrate --settings ldvspec.se
 ### Start developing
 
 - Copy the `ldvspec.example.env`, rename it to `ldvspec.env` and fill in the variables. The variables should match the `local.py` settings which are coherent with the `docker-compose-local.yml` setup.
+- Run the docker build for the base image of the Dockerfile
+  >  docker build -f Dockerfile.base -t git.astron.nl:5000/astron-sdc/ldv-specification/base:latest .
+- Run the docker-compose build for the local environment from folder `lvdspec` (_Note_: the path from which you build the docker-compose matters here!)
+  > docker-compose -f ./docker/docker-compose-local.yml build
 - Run `docker-compose -f docker-compose-local.yml up -d` with the following compose file to spin up a new Postgres container, celery worker and rabbitMQ.
 - Run the following python commands to start developing
   - migrate
diff --git a/ldvspec/docker/docker-compose-local.yml b/ldvspec/docker/docker-compose-local.yml
index 4eb901f4d35736429178947c82a6c5c8dc2b8006..6f354f3c09496d62eb39cd40a594d327c6495410 100644
--- a/ldvspec/docker/docker-compose-local.yml
+++ b/ldvspec/docker/docker-compose-local.yml
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
 version: '3.4'
 networks:
   ldv_network:
-  traefik_proxy:
-    external:
-      name: traefik_proxy
   default:
     driver: bridge
 
@@ -12,14 +9,15 @@ services:
     image: postgres:14
     container_name: ldv-spec-postgres
     ports:
-      - "5433:5432"
+      - "5433:5433"
     networks:
-      - traefik_proxy
       - ldv_network
     env_file:
       - ../ldvspec.env
     volumes:
       - ldv-spec-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    command:
+      - -p 5433
     restart: always
 
   rabbitmq:
@@ -33,6 +31,9 @@ services:
   ldv-specification-background:
     container_name: ldv-specification-background
     image: git.astron.nl:5000/astron-sdc/ldv-specification:${LDVSPEC_VERSION:-latest}
+    build:
+      context: ..
+      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile
     networks:
       - ldv_network
     depends_on:
@@ -40,8 +41,11 @@ services:
     environment:
       CELERY_BROKER_URL: amqp://guest@rabbitmq:5672
       DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: 'ldvspec.settings.local'
+      DATABASE_HOST_SERVER: ldv-spec-db
     env_file:
       - ../ldvspec.env
+    volumes:
+      - ../:/src/
     command: celery -A ldvspec worker -l INFO
     restart: always
 
diff --git a/ldvspec/ldvspec.env b/ldvspec/ldvspec.env
deleted file mode 100755
index 356d0d57e452b1bb69cba5dfb7715242ab5b25dd..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/ldvspec/ldvspec.env
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-DEBUG=True
-POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret
-POSTGRES_USER=postgres
-POSTGRES_DB=ldv-spec-db
-DATABASE_HOST=ldv-spec-db
-DATABASE_PORT=5433
-DATABASE_NAME=ldv-spec-db
-DATABASE_USER=postgres
-DATABASE_PASSWORD=secret
-ATDB_HOST=https://sdc-dev.astron.nl:5554/atdb/
-CELERY_BROKER_URL=amqp://guest@localhost:5672
diff --git a/ldvspec/ldvspec/settings/local.py b/ldvspec/ldvspec/settings/local.py
index 97827532c7bf836be7e16ddf63bec56fd461c1dd..6b02c10d0bd136c73ff6edbbc9d104f4a26c1524 100644
--- a/ldvspec/ldvspec/settings/local.py
+++ b/ldvspec/ldvspec/settings/local.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import os
+
 from ldvspec.settings.base import *
 
 DEV = True
@@ -8,11 +10,11 @@ CORS_ORIGIN_ALLOW_ALL = True
 
 DATABASES = {
     'default': {
-         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
-         'USER': 'postgres',
-         'PASSWORD': 'secret',
-         'NAME': 'ldv-spec-db',
-         'HOST': 'localhost',
-         'PORT': '5433',
+        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
+        'USER': os.getenv("POSTGRES_USER", "postgres"),
+        'PASSWORD':  os.getenv("POSTGRES_PASSWORD", "secret"),
+        'NAME': os.getenv("DATABASE_NAME", "ldv-spec-db"),
+        'HOST': os.getenv("DATABASE_HOST_SERVER", "localhost"),
+        'PORT': os.getenv("DATABASE_PORT", "5433")
     },
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}