13. 28-10-20 Plumbers Autumn Lecture

It was with great pleasure that tonight I attended the Autumn Lecture of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, titled “Use less water or waste less water?” The Plumbers Company, like the Water Conservators, are one of the WET10 livery companies. The evening was hosted by Richard Soper CBE, Chair of the Technical and Education Committee of the Plumbers Company. Richard introduced the evening by reminding everyone of the key aims of the Plumbers Company in encouraging excellence in plumbing and raising the profile of key future plumbing developments. He then introduced the first speaker, Julie Spinks, Managing Director of the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme.

Julie presented some interesting statistics on water use in the home and illustrated how most of the general public were unaware of how much water they were actually using. She highlighted four key areas that were critical to reducing future water use in the home, the use of complaint fittings, choosing products that used less water, certified installation by approved plumbers, and repairing leaking fittings.

The second speaker was Yvonne Orgill, Managing Director of the Unified Water Label. Yvonne explained how the Unified Water Label together with 3 calculators available to the public in November can help consumers identify the water, energy and carbon efficiency of products. These tools were already being used by developers and architects to improve the water efficiency of new homes. However, there was also the challenge to retrofit more water efficient devices in existing homes, for example fitting the 6 litre tap in place of the 13 litre tap in 27 million homes across the UK could save billions of litres of water, but consumer buy in was required to drive retrofit projects

Finally, the evening concluded with the traditional lively question and answer session.

12. 28-10-20 Local Government Awards

Unfortunately, this year’s Local Government Awards, originally planned as a glamorous evening at the Dorcester Hotel in London in March earlier this year, had to be postponed due to the pandemic. However, this afternoon the event finally took place virtually. Hosted by Justin Webb, presenter of Radio Four’s “Today” programme, the ceremony consisted of 21 categories, with a wide range of awards including Council of the Year, Innovation, Environmental Services, Campaign of the Year, Business Transformation and Diversity to mention just a few.

The City of London’s “Plastic Free City Campaign” was nominated in two categories, Business Transformation and Campaign of the Year. Although we didn’t win in either category it was a great achievement to have been nominated and a real pleasure to have been a part of the “Plastic Free City Campaign”. The campaign has seen an estimated reduction of over 5 million single use plastic items by 80 plus businesses in the Square Mile, and also included the installation of a number of additional public drinking fountains. The photo below shows the then Master of the Water Conservators, Simon Catford with the Lady Mayoress, myself and children from Hugh Myddelton School launching a new fountain in Cheapside in March 2019.

The Water Conservators played a key role in supporting the campaign, organising a WET10 lecture on plastic waste, an Environmental Event in Guildhall for City businesses and school children, and I chaired the technical steering group for the campaign.

11. 26-10-20 Actuaries Livery Lecture

Tonight, I attended the Actuaries Livery Lecture hosted by Fiona Morrison, current Master of the Actuaries Company. Chris Hopson, Chief Executive of NHS Providers gave an excellent and very topical presentation “What lessons should we learn, as a nation, from COVID-19”.

Chris focussed his talk on 5 key areas - national risk management, international risk management, tackling inequalities, rebalancing government from national to local, and the future of our public finances.

On national risk management he pointed to the need restructure government to look at the longer term, following the progress already made in setting up a National Infrastructure Commission. He urged politicians to devote more time to developing an international structure rather than the overwhelming current focus on just trade. Chris presented some alarming statistics on the significantly greater impact of COVID-19 in the most deprived areas and how the pandemic was increasing the gap in wealth and health. To tackle this, he called for public services to be more devolved and less centralised, as local health organisations work better with local leaders, to improve track and trace as an example. He also pointed out that more devolved societies tend to be more equal.

Finally, he spoke about the impact of the pandemic on our public finances, with an additional £300 billon of additional public borrowing so far. He pointed to the financial parallels with the Second World War, yet out of that we built a fairer, more prosperous society and the challenge was to do that again. His talk was followed by a lively and engaging question and answer session.

10. 20-10-20 Bricks and Water Launch

Today I attended the launch of the latest report “Bricks and Water: Building Resilience for England’s Homes” by Policy Connect and the Westminster Sustainable Business Forum, hosted by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering, Inquiry Chair.

The report highlights that due to climate change and population growth areas of the UK could run out of water by 2050. One in six properties in England are at risk of flooding, and since 2013, 85,000 new homes have been built within areas of high flood risk.

Rob Allen of the Westminster Sustainable Business Forum, the report’s author, gave a presentation pointing out the key recommendations in the report. He warned that personal water consumption must be urgently cut from the current national average of 143 litres per person, per day.  Through a combination of measures such as changes to building regulations, introduction of a mandatory water label for fixtures and fittings, and increased metering, it should be possible to reduce consumption below 90lpppd by 2050, at little-to-no cost to the householder.

Increased property development exacerbates the risks from flooding and in spite of increased funding for flood defence schemes, it will not be possible to protect all homes. The report recommends the rapid acceleration of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures to help to reduce the costs of restoration following a flood and allow buildings to be re-occupied more quickly. The report also calls for nature-based solutions such as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) to be put at the heart of the Government’s housebuilding programme.

9. 15-10-20 Virtual Wine Tasting Evening

Tonight, it was an absolute pleasure to host my first social event as Master, the Water Conservators “Virtual Wine Tasting Evening”. It was so nice to meet up with so many members again, from all corners of the country, some I had not seen for many months. I also picked up some amazing wine tips, a good red wine for just £3.99 a bottle, and another red that was sulphite free to name just two.

Utilising the breakout facility in Zoom we split the meeting to groups of 4 to enable everyone to socialise and describe their wine to others in their group, remixing the groups throughout the evening to allow everyone to meet. Special thanks to Past Master Simon Catford who yet again managed the zoom technology for us. Despite being constrained to a virtual meeting by the current pandemic it was still a most worthwhile and enjoyable evening.

8. 07-10-20 Capital Digital Solutions

Tonight, I hosted my first and the Company’s fifth webinar titled “Capital Digital Solutions - Embracing digital technology to drive water efficiencies in London” presented by Andy Taylor, Chief Engineer and Digital Transformation Lead, Atkins Global. Andy demonstrated how Atkins are using digital technology to automate routine activities and develop new digital tools to operate more efficiently via a wide-ranging set of example case studies.

The examples included a tool (called RATS) to automate and speed up the review of sewer CCTV data to identify and prioritise rehabilitation needs (see picture below) to a digital process called NetCreate that uses global open source GIS datasets to automatically create and cost an outline wastewater network on a repeatable basis for use in developing countries.

All of this was extremely thought providing and generated a lively question and answer session after the main presentation. My thanks go to Andy for an excellent presentation and to Past Master Simon Catford for admirably managing the zoom technology once again. I look forward to our next webinar on 11^th November when Court Assistant, David Lloyd will be giving us an important update on the progress monitoring Covid-19 in our sewers.

7. 06-10-20 Faith in the City of London

The City of London Corporation have organised an exhibition at Paternoster Square near St Pauls of photographs by artist and photographer Niki Gorick illustrating the diversity of faiths practiced in the City. These include pictures of weddings, communions, evangelical bible studies and Livery company carol services to Knights Templar investitures.

Today I attended a webinar to showcase the exhibition hosted by Niki Gorick with a distinguished discussion panel of guests from various faiths. On the panel were the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally, DBE, Bishop of London, Rabbi Shalom Morris of Bevis Marks Synagogue, Shaykh Yunus Dudwala, Head of Chaplaincy at Barts Health, and Mandip Singh, Simran in the City.

All the panellists gave their impressions of the impact of the current pandemic on their faith communities, assisting with soup kitchens and food deliveries, practicing faith on-line and the difficulties of dealing with the increased number of deaths with funerals where families could not be present.

But they also all gave a message of their hope for the future describing the City as more than just a place for work and generating wealth, but also an important place for community and embracing diversity.

Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman William Russell, who provides the foreword for the accompanying book to the exhibition, said: “Niki’s wonderful photographs have the ability to draw the reader into the City of London’s diverse spiritual life which, despite the large number of places of worship in the Square Mile, many people will be unaware of. Whatever their beliefs, I do hope that they will be encouraged to view the exhibition and learn more about people’s different faiths and the beautiful places of worship where they find peace, meaning, and a sense of community.”

6. 06-10-20 Masters Committee Meeting

Today we held a special meeting of the Masters Committee via zoom principally to discuss possible events going forward. Based on the latest information from government it appears likely that we could be limited to virtual events throughout the winter months.

On that basis we agreed to continue the very successful monthly webinars and the discussion revolved around possible future topics and speakers. Discussions are ongoing with our chaplain, the Reverend Katherine Hedderley, Vicar of All Hallows by the Tower about a possible virtual “Carol Festival” in December. We also talked about the possibility of a virtual lunch/dinner early in the New Year and/or a quiz night.

The Masters committee, FM&GP and Court meetings will continue to function virtually as scheduled, with admission ceremonies also conducted virtually.

I’m looking forward to our next webinar on the 7^th October “Capital Digital Solutions” presented by Andy Taylor, Chief Engineer and Digital Transformation Lead, Atkins Global, and hosting our “Virtual Wine Tasting Evening” on Thursday 15^th October.

5. 04-10-20 WCT Sponsored Walk

Today I attended the Water Conservation Trust’s annual sponsored walk, which this year was along the River Thames from Bourne End to Cookham to Spade Oak Reach. The money raised will go to support the Trust’s schools programme to enhance water related science and environmental learning in schools. In terms of fund raising it looks like this could be our most successful walk ever. With gift aid and possible matched funding from Thames Water’s Charity Committee we are likely to raise almost £5,000 for the Trust.

Firstly, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who sponsored us, your giving will make a significant difference to the schools we support, with many of the children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. Whether it is funding additional STEM facilities, outdoor river education days, prizes for environmental projects, or an educational visit to the London Museum of Water and Steam, all of them help to increase children’s knowledge of water and the environment, and hopefully stimulating more children to take up a career in the water industry.

Secondly, I would also like to sincerely thank our walkers today who turned out to brave the cold and damp conditions. They were Peter Hall, Trevor and Annette Harington, Terence Winfield and Thomas Earnshaw, all specially chosen volunteers to ensure we had the right participants to apply for matched funding from Thames Water. Together with myself that gave 6 walkers all socially distanced to meet the government guidelines.

Bearing in mind the level of rainfall we have had over the last few days, we were quite fortunate, and everyone completed the walk, a little damp due to the periods of drizzle, but not soaked. The biggest disappointment was not being able to enjoy the traditional pub lunch and pint at the end of walk, as outside dining had been suspended due to the weather. 

4. 01-10-20 Horners’ Company Virtual Banquet

Tonight I attended the Annual Banquet of the Worshipful Company of Horners. An event normally held in Mansion House, it was for the first time held virtually, but otherwise followed the normal protocol of a livery dinner with all attendees suitably attired. Master Martin Muirhead welcomed everyone to the event and said one of the advantages of zoom was that they had invited the Master of every livery company at zero cost. A total of 49 visiting Masters were present.

This was followed by a speech by the Lord Mayor, Rt Hon William Russell. He thanked the livery companies for their resourcefulness throughout the pandemic in supporting communities and he would be making a special award to recognise this contribution. Having been recently re-elected as Lord Mayor he pointed out that he was the first Lord Mayor to serve a second term since William Cubit in 1860. He also announced his theme for this year “Global UK The New Future” which included creating innovative environments, helping new business startups, bringing a new audience to the workplace and being more inclusive.

Attendees then split up into breakout rooms for dinner and the opportunity to converse with other Masters. After dinner we reconvened to the main room for a speech by Sheriff and Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli who spoke about the importance of technology in improving the environment. In particular he focused on the plastics industry stressing that it could thrive in the future with responsible disposal and extensive recycling.

Finally, attendees again split up into breakout rooms for stirrup cup and conversation. Although the splendor of Mansion House was unfortunately absent due the current pandemic restrictions, the engaging conversation and fellowship, more than made up for this, and the event was extremely well organised by the Horners’ Company.

3. 30-09-20 Future Visit - RAF Pathfinder Museum

A good friend and colleague of mine, Carl Thomas, is a curator at the Pathfinder Museum at RAF Wyton.  The museum contains the most comprehensive collection of RAF Pathfinder Force memorabilia and proudly displays one of the largest collections of Pathfinder Force photographs in existence. He has offered Water Conservators a private visit in 2021 including lunch in the Officers Mess. This year the museum unveiled a new memorial to Pathfinder Force at RAF Wyton.

As many of you know my father was a navigator in RAF during World War 2 and completed 29 operational bombing missions to Germany in RAF Lancasters for which he was awarded the DFC. Most Lancasters averaged only 5 missions. He then joined Pathfinder Force and flew numerous further missions in Mosquitos marking the target for bombing raids. The museum hold a copy of his biography. My sister and I are both very much looking forward to this visit, more details will be available once the current restrictions begin to lift. I do hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us to help honour the memory of my father.