Welcome to the eighth issue of Water Resources East’s quarterly newsletter – the latest developments in water resources and integrated water management taking place across the Eastern region.
You can probably tell from our recent LinkedIn posts and stakeholder emails that it’s been another very busy couple of months for the team since our last newsletter.
We held our Annual General Meeting last week with members. Alongside the usual formal business I presented the progress we’ve made against each of the five strategic priorities in our Business Plan for 2024-2028. Members should have received the minutes, slide pack and webinar recording late last week.
Prepared for the AGM, we published our Directors’ Annual Report on our website last week. Hopefully this gives our members and wider stakeholders a good account of the full breadth of our work during the year, with updates on key projects and how we have further strengthened our governance and funding position this year.
We are also making the final changes to our 2024 Progress Report on our Regional Water Resources Plan which will be published in w/b 13th January. Please register here if you’d like to attend the launch webinar at 2pm on Tuesday, 21st January.
We’ll be helping water companies update their next drought management plans next year. They’ve already launched a pre-consultation phase, and as part of that we’re hosting a webinar on 29th January so the company leads can set out their thinking and gather early feedback. Please register here if you’d like to attend and participate.
We helped launch a Climate Change Risk Assessment for the Fens last month, prepared by the Tyndall Centre for the Future Fens Integrated Adaptation partnership that WRE co-leads.
We’ve published an initial report that underpins our approach to Environmental Destination investigations. The report assesses each catchment in the region against a range of metrics to help us decide the order in which to conduct these investigations.
The team spent a great day in November hosted by Wildlife Trust BCN to hear the latest on the Great Fen project and their exciting Strawberry Hill scheme. Of course there was the obligatory photo of team members next to the Holme Fen Post (above).
There’s also lots of activity behind the scenes on the Cambridge Water Scarcity Group, supporting local resource option studies for agriculture, and working with partners to scope a smart farming trial in the region. More on that next time once funding is agreed.
There’s only one more major milestone left in 2024 before we down tools for the Christmas break – all eyes on Ofwat’s PR24 final determinations of water company business plans out here on Thursday. As a reminder, we wrote to Ofwat back in August to welcome their draft determinations but asked for key aspects to be strengthened ahead of final decisions. In particular we hope to see more funding for water efficiency programmes, environmental investigations and to develop the Mablethorpe desal scheme to the next stage.
Lastly, I wanted to introduce the latest member of the team who starts with us in January. Teresa Meadows joins us from BASIS to lead our stakeholder engagement on agriculture and the environment. She’ll bring the team a huge amount of technical expertise and sector knowledge from her previous as well as wider roles, including as a Nuffield Scholar, director of the North Essex Farm Cluster and a trustee of the Rural Community Council of Essex.
Looking forward to another busy and productive 2025, but first wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Daniel Johns, Managing Director