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Wessex Water Partnership

The Wessex Water Partnership is an independent body that plays a key role in representing the interests and needs of Wessex Water's customers.


Its role includes:

  • monitoring and reporting on Wessex Water's delivery of all aspects of its 2020 to 2025 business plan from the perspective of its customers
  • providing advice and challenging Wessex Water on any plan to share outperformance with customers over and above the business plan
  • offering advice and challenging the company on policy areas such as customer engagement, customer service, affordability and tariffs.

Chaired by Dan Rogerson, former minister for water, the partnership comprises members from various organisations representing customers and stakeholders including Consumer Council for Water, Age UK and the Environment Agency.

Supported by an independently chaired catchment panel and a futures panel, the partnership maintains local engagement with annual stakeholder forums involving local councillors.

For more information about the partnership's role, see About the partnership .

THE PANEL

The Wessex Water Partnership panel comprises the following people

Dan Rogerson, chair

Dan served as MP for North Cornwall from 2005 to 2015 and was minister for water, forestry, rural affairs and resource management in the coalition government from 2013-2015. While in parliament he chaired various all party groups and was a member of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee for eight years. As minister he took the Water Act 2014 through parliament and introduced the charge on single use plastic bags in England. Dan represented the UK at the inaugural United Nations Environment Assembly and at the EU Environment Council. He previously worked in local government and university administration. He is a trustee of the charities Enable in Cornwall and St Piran's Trust and is a school governor.

KEVIN WARD

Kevin is a water company account manager for the Environment Agency (EA). He is the single point of contact for Wessex Water and has oversight of the full range of environmental disciplines relevant to the company: water quality, water resources, flood risk management, price review/AMP and environmental performance. With over twenty years of experience with the Agency in a large range of subjects Kevin's previous role was as advisor to EA directors on water, land and biodiversity issues.  Previous to this Kevin worked as an Environmental Consultant in London after graduating in Environmental Science from the University of Plymouth.

MICHAEL BARNES

Michael Barnes is a policy manager with the Consumer Council for Water with responsibility for its Western region which includes Wessex Water. Before joining Ofwat in 2000, Michael studied law and ran his own business after a career in the Royal Navy. He transferred to CCWater in 2005 and led the region's consumer relations team until appointed to his current role in 2015. He has extensive experience of dealing with customers' concerns and representing customers in his work, advising and challenging water companies in the development of their policies and services.

GILLIAN CAMM

Gillian was appointed as an independent non-executive director of Wessex Water Services Ltd in November 2011. She is chair of the board of governors at the University of the West of England, Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, vice president of the Quartet Community Foundation and a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers.

SARAH CARDY

Sarah has been chief executive officer of Wiltshire Citizens Advice since 2010. She was formally chief officer of West Wiltshire Citizens Advice Bureau. Sarah has been a member of Wessex Water affordability advisory group. She has been a board member of West Wilts Housing Society and was chair for seven years, seeing WWHS through two large scale voluntary transfers. She has also been a West Wiltshire district councillor and mayor of Melksham Town Council.

RICHARD CRESSWELL

Richard has been director of the Environment Agency in the South West of England since July 2000. He is also the national lead for the Operations Directorate on Climate Change and on the Sustainable Places agenda. He is a Zoology graduate from Imperial College, London, with a research doctorate in Applied Hydrobiology from University of Wales, Cardiff. Following an early career with Thames, Yorkshire and Welsh Water Authorities he became the National Rivers Authority's area manager for Northumbria in 1993, and regional general manager for Northumbria and Yorkshire in 1995. He is currently a trustee of Sustainability South West and Regen South West, Chair of Climate South West and Chair of Homemaker South West (preventing homelessness and promoting independence). Richard received an MBE in July 2000 for services to the environment.

MARTIN GREEN

After a sales career primarily in the computer and telecoms sectors, Martin joined Talking Money, formerly Bristol Debt Advice Centre, in 1994, where he was director for 14 years. During that time he also served two terms as chair of the Institute of Money Advisers. Following 2.5 years at Citizens Advice as head of business development, he moved in early 2011 to South Gloucestershire where he took up the role of chief executive officer of Age UK South Gloucestershire. Martin now manages a growing range of older people's services and is involved in a number of partnerships in that unitary authority. A trustee of South Gloucestershire CVS, he is also active in his local church where he serves as treasurer. 

DAVID HAWKES

David has been National Money Advice Co-ordinator at AdviceUK since 2009. He has responsibility for AdviceUK's money advice policy and strategy, as well as providing support to the 700+ members of the largest network of independent advice centres in the UK. He has worked in the advice sector since 1992, initially for the CAB Service in London and for eight years as the manager of Gloucestershire Money Advice Service. He has been a co-chair of the Money Advice Association, a vice chair (Advice) of the Money Advice Liaison Group and was the first Chair of the Institute of Money Advisers. He was also a member of the Money Advice Sub-Group of the Financial Inclusion Task Force from 2009 to 2011. David has been a member of the Editorial Committee of Quarterly Account since 2001. He is a trustee of the Money Advice Liaison Group, EDF Energy Trust and the Debt Counsellors Charitable Trust, and Chair of the Debt Resolution Forum's Complaints, Conciliation & Disciplinary Committee.

JEREMY HAWKINS

Jeremy Hawkins is a chartered civil engineer with over 30 years' experience in the UK and international water industry. He was involved with the privatisation of the industry in England and Wales in the 1980s and has been involved in regulatory performance reporting and assurance since then. He was an independent reporter to Ofwat on Dwr Cymru Welsh Water's performance for nine years. He spent six years as a senior regulatory manager at Thames Water responsible for regulatory risk and compliance, performance reporting and information governance. He is an independent consultant to several water and sewerage companies and customer challenge groups, providing technical assurance and advising on information reporting and governance. He is the report writer and assurance advisor to the Wessex Water Partnership.

DAVID HEATH CBE

David was MP for Somerton and Frome from 1997 before stepping down at the 2015 general election. He served as deputy leader of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2012 and as minister for farming and food from 2012 to 2013. A qualified optician by profession, David was involved in local government before being elected to parliament. He has held a number of senior roles in local government and policing at national level, and served on the Audit Commission from 1994 to 1997.

MATT VAUGHAN WILSON

Matt Vaughan Wilson is partnerships manager at the Money Advice Trust. Prior to joining the trust, he worked in teaching and research roles at the University of Birmingham where he completed a PhD in Modern History. Matt worked as a money adviser for several years before moving into policy and business development. His current role focuses on relationships with the energy, water and telecoms sectors and on helping to develop the trust's work around consumer vulnerability. Matt is vice-chair of the Essential Services Access Network, a cross-sector network of consumer and voluntary groups, ombudsman services and regulators.

Dr Ian Walker

Dr Ian Walker is an environmental psychologist at the University of Bath where he leads the water awareness and human behaviour programme within the Water Innovation and Research Centre (WIRC). He heads up research on how people understand and use energy, buildings and water as well as working on road safety and transport choices, particularly the promotion of sustainable modes. Ian specialises in teaching the methods of human research and has published two international textbooks on this topic. Previous projects he has worked on include the Department for Transport's climate change research, RWE npower's smart thermostat rollout, Western Power Distribution's work on small-scale solar generation and storage, and the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics' research on vulnerable road user safety.

Nicola Morris

A third year Chemical Engineering student at the University of Bath, Nicola joined the board to represent the student voice and now gives light on what is important to the future generation. Being a faculty representative for Engineering & Design and Public Engagement officer for Women in Engineering Bath, she enjoys getting involved with the University and wider community. Passionate about sustainability and environmental conservation, Nicola's aim is to use her degree to help companies and organisations make steps in the right direction reducing their carbon footprint and moving towards cleaner energy sources.​

About the Partnership

On behalf of customers, the Wessex Water Partnership plays a key role in monitoring and reporting on Wessex Water's delivery of its business plan for the for the five year period to March 2025.

Partnership - team at Burnham Jetty

Members of the partnership visiting one of Wessex Water's multimillion pound schemes in Bridgwater to improve bathing water quality. 

 

In particular it looks at how Wessex Water delivers against the commitments it has made to:

  • offer affordable bills
  • provide excellent customer service
  • build better relationships with customers and communities
  • drive efficient use of water
  • supply excellent drinking water quality
  • protect and enhance the environment
  • minimise sewage flooding
  • maintain resilient services.

These are the key priorities that customers identified when they were consulted during the last price review.

The partnership advises and challenges Wessex Water with regard to these priorities and publishes its advice to the company's board on whether performance commitments are being met.

The partnership helped Wessex Water to develop its current 2020-2025 business plan to ensure it meets the needs of its customers. 

In particular, the partnership has advised and challenged Wessex Water with regard to:

  • its engagement and research plans for the current business plan
  • its interpretation of customers' views and how they are reflected in the business plan which came into effect from 1 April 2020.

An annual report is published by the partnership outlining its discussion topics, major conclusions and its assessment of Wessex Water's progress in delivering its performance commitments.

In addition minutes of partnership meetings are available on this website.

You can see the full details of the Partnership's terms of reference here .

View the Wessex Water Partnership Code of conduct here .

View our privacy policy here .

Wessex Water Partnership meeting

Meetings

Agenda and minutes of meetings of the Wessex Water Partnership will be posted here.

Date Agenda and minutes
7 July 2020 Annual report 2020
11 June 2020 Agenda
9 March 2020 Agenda and Minutes
14 November 2019 Agenda and Minutes
30 August 2019 Draft Determination response letter
16 August 2019 Agenda and Minutes
1 July 2019 Annual report 2019
17 June 2019 Agenda and Minutes
April 2019 Report on Wessex Water’s response to Ofwat’s initial assessment of the company’s 2020-2025 Business Plan
21 February 2019 Agenda and Minutes
25 October 2018 Agenda and Minutes
September 2018 Assurance Report on Wessex Water’s 2020 – 2025 Business Plan
12 July 2018 Agenda and Minutes
11 July 2018 Annual report 2018
18 June 2018 Agenda and Minutes
15 May 2018 Agenda and Minutes
22 March 2018 Agenda and Minutes
6 February 2018 Agenda and Minutes
5 December 2017 Agenda and Minutes
18 October 2017 Agenda and Minutes
11 July 2017 Annual report 2017
22 June 2017 Agenda and Minutes
22 March 2017 Agenda and Minutes
26 January 2017 Agenda and Minutes
6 October 2016 Agenda and Minutes
12 July 2016 Annual Report 2016
29 June 2016 Agenda and Minutes
23 March 2016 Agenda and Minutes
28 January 2016 Agenda and Minutes

Contact us

If you want to get in touch with the partnership, please complete and submit form below.