61. 25-06-21 June FM&GP Meeting

Today I chaired the last Finance, Membership and General Purpose Committee of my term as Master. The new Master and Wardens Elect were also in attendance. We discuss articles for the forthcoming July edition of the Conservator and our Clerk gave us update on the Company finances which are in a healthy position from last year despite the pandemic. We also discussed future events and the need to bring members together again in the City as the social restrictions are eased.

Some time was also spent discussing the hiring of a new Beadle. Our current Beadle Tim Gutteridge has resigned as he has been offered a full-time position as a detective in the Metropolitan Police Force. We all wish Tim the very best for the future and thank him for the time he served us as Beadle.

Finally, I gave the committee an update on the Governance Review and Livery Climate Action Group. Work on the Governance Review is continuing well. It is planned to produce the Governance Review Paper for the Sept. FM&GP and Court. The draft Paper will be first shown to the Master/ Wardens Elect and the Clerk during July for comments. The main points arising from the consultation are: no changes to the Ordinances, modest changes to the Standing Orders, corrections to the Company Manual and Handbook to align with the governing documents, improving member orientation, a new task for the FM&GP in respect of external affairs, and a statement of Company values and code of conduct.

The Livery Climate Action Group, led by Alderman Alison Gowman, consists of around 50 volunteers from various livery companies, including 8 Water Conservators, in 4 working groups (Investment, Property, Education and General) to progress various aspects of the City’s Climate Action Strategy. The group is working on a charter that can be used by each livery company to produce their own climate action plan. We are currently advising other companies on water efficiency, wastewater and waste management/recycling, and will be looking to produce a draft action plan for the Water Conservators to put before the September Court meeting.

60. 16-06-21 Election Court Reconvened

As the Master Elect unfortunately stood down for next year, the Election Court was reconvened to elect a new Master. Past Master Peter Hall was duly elected on the basis of votes cast to be installed on 9^th July 2021 at the Installation Court. I would like to thank the candidates who put themselves forward at short notice and being prepared to give up their free time to take on the demanding role of Master to ensure this Company continues to prosper. My thanks also go to Past Master Roger North and our Clerk, Ralph Riley for putting together the election process in unique circumstances, and to Deputy Master Mark Lane for professionally conducting a “Meet The Candidate” session as part of the election. I thought these sessions were extremely useful in highlighting a number of very positive ideas for the future of the Company, and my thanks go to everyone who participated.

Peter Hall was previously Master in 2015/16 and has an extensive knowledge of the water sector. After spending 10 years with the National Water Council, Peter was appointed assistant secretary at the newly formed Water Authorities Association, where he dealt with finance and general policy matters, including industry-side logistics for water authority privatisation. Appointed deputy director at the Water Services Association in 1989, Peter spent several years coordinating views on policy issues.

My congratulations go to Peter on his election and as we hopefully come out of the pandemic and return to normal business we are all looking forward to working with Peter to create a very successful future for the Company.

59. 15-06-21 The Role of the Community in Protecting and Improving River Environments

It was a great pleasure to host this month’s Water Conservators webinar titled “The Role of the Community in Protecting and Improving River Environments” presented by Debbie Leach, Chief Executive of Thames21. Debbie began her talk by explaining how for centuries there has been a close connection between the River Thames and the communities it served. Right back to Roman times the river has been important for trade and transport, with London established a key trading port. Then with population growth the river became polluted in the 19^th century until the Bazalgette sewer system cleaned up the river. This has been followed up in the 21^st century by the Thames Tideway tunnel, preventing sewage overflows into the river.

However, in recent times a “disconnect” has grown between people and the river with many rivers becoming culverted and no longer looking like a natural river. So a key challenge for Thames21 is how do we engage people better with the issues we face, including climate change. Thames21 are supporting people to reconnect and help rescue our rivers via key projects such as Thames River Watch, a citizen science project in which volunteers collect data to help us better understand the health of the river.

Thames21 also has an established training programme and supports river action groups. The charity has also been involved in creating and protecting new wetland areas and has worked in catchment partnerships. Debbie explained how there is still so much to do to rescue our blue-green spaces, rebuild communities after the pandemic, tackle plastic pollution, and combat water scarcity. She urged everyone to help with funding to build Thames21’s core capacity, help to simply spread word, and introduce volunteers with technical expertise to support a growing organisation.

Debbie’s presentation was then followed by an excellent question and answer session which included how Thames21 and the Water Conservation Trust could work together to increase environmental learning about rivers in our schools, and possibilities to increase the links between City businesses and the River Thames, so that businesses understand more about the environmental challenges. On behalf of everyone I would again like to thank Debbie for an excellent presentation, and also give my thanks to everyone who attended making the webinar a great success.

58. 19-05-21 How Do We Ensure Water Quality After Brexit?

It was a great pleasure to host the 12th in our series of Water Conservators webinars titled “How Do We Ensure Water Quality After Brexit?” presented by Professor Sean Comber of Plymouth University. Professor Comber began his talk by outlining his background, spending many years at WRC working on environmental monitoring, then with WS Atkins on projects driven by the European Framework Directive, and then finally with University of Plymouth.

He then went on to explain how the toxicity of metals in rivers are impacted by their form and ambient conditions and how European Quality Standards for phosphates assume all phosphorus is soluble and bioavailable, whereas the bioavailable phosphorus is dependent many factors such as suspended solids. He also described the impact the river environment can have on the bioavailability of organics and pharmaceuticals, and the current regulatory set up around 50 priority and priority hazardous substances some with standards set just above the level of detection.

Professor Comber then outlined how quality standards are set with factors of safety being introduced at each level of the food chain to ensure a tolerable level of dietary intake in humans. The cost of compliance is enormous with £4bn of water industry investment planned for 2020-25 mostly for phosphorus removal at Sewage Treatment Works. Finally, he suggested a possible way forward for the future compliance of metals, phosphate and organics that includes a bioavailability assessment, along with more toxicity testing and the better management of pharmaceuticals at source as an effective way of reducing risk at a reasonable cost.

Professor Comber’s presentation was then followed by an excellent question and answer session where some of the key challenges for the UK water sector post Brexit were discussed. On behalf of everyone I would again like to thank Professor Comber for an excellent presentation, and also give my thanks to everyone who attended making the webinar a great success.

57. 11-05-21 Searching For London’s Lost Rivers

Tonight, I attended a very interesting webinar hosted by the City of Westminster Libraries and Archives on “Searching for London’s Lost Rivers” presented by Dr Tom Bolton. Tom Bolton is a writer, researcher and photographer who lives in Streatham, works in urban design and policy, and is the author of 5 books including 2 volumes on “London’s Lost Rivers – A Walkers Guide”.

During his presentation Tom explained how many of these “Lost Rivers” were still alive but now as part of the sewer system, however, glimpses of them could be seen under drainage covers, or in the case of the River Westbourne running across Sloane Square tube station in a pipe. Then Tom decided to focus on some of the lesser know rivers including the Black Ditch and Stamford Brook. It was a fascinating talk with topical stories related to the rivers, and many wonderful illustrations. This was followed by an interesting Q&A session in which Tom explained how the Serpentine had been created from the River Westbourne and Highgate ponds were the source of the River Fleet, originally dammed for public water supply. My thanks go to Tom and the City of Westminster Libraries and Archives for an excellent webinar.

56. 07-05-21 Election Court Meeting

Today, I attended our Election Court meeting where the Court elects the company officials for the coming year. The Court re-elected Christine Duthie, Ken Marsh and Guy Titman as Court Assistants and also appointed 4 new Court Assistants, Colin Drummond, Tom Flood, Roger Hewitt and Carolyn Roberts. Graham Howells was then elected as Master for 2021/22, along with Christine Jarvis as Thames Warden, Colin Drummond as Fleet Warden and Martin Bigg as Walbrook Warden.

The Court also appointed Ken Marsh as Treasurer and myself as Publicity Manager. My congratulations go to all the officers appointed. The Court also received a report from the Finance, Membership and General Purposes Committee and approved the annual quarterage, Court fines and proposed Company budget for 2021/22.

55. 27-04-21 Cobham Lecture – Towards Zero-Emission Flight

Tonight, I attended the Cobham Lecture hosted by The Honourable Company of Air Pilots titled “Towards Zero-Emission Flight & the Fastest Electric-Powered Aircraft”, and presented by Matheu Parr, Senior Programme Manager, and Chris Hadlow, Chief Pilot, at Rolls-Royce plc.

Matheu Parr is the Customer Business Director for Rolls-Royce Electrical, a newly formed business within Rolls-Royce group focussed upon delivery of complete electrical propulsion systems to the general aerospace market such as Urban Air Mobility & Commuter aircraft.  Matheu is also leading this highly specialised charge to build the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft.  With a technical background in electrical engineering as well as project management, he is responsible for the delivery of this high performance zero-emissions plane.

Matheu began his talk by explaining how electrification is an inescapable trend across aerospace markets as we all seek cleaner, more sustainable power. The ACCEL project is intended to pioneer this third wave of aviation through a highly specialised goal of building the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft. ACCEL will help us bring forward the adoption of zero-emission flight, while also looking to stimulate the development of an electric aircraft supply chain, and of course make a run for the record books with a target speed of 300+ mph.

He explained how the aircraft they had built to challenge the current speed  record of 220 mph called “Spirit of Innovation” was inspired by Rolls Royce’s participation in building engines for the Snider Trophy 100 years ago which ultimately lead to the development of the Spitfire.

Chris began his talk by outlining his RAF flying career as a Jaguar pilot on No 6 Squadron and whilst in the RAF he also completed a tour as an instructor on the Hawk, as well as an exchange tour on the Alphajet in France.  In 2006 Chris joined British Airways flying A320s until a year later when an opportunity came up to fly the Gulfstream 450 for Rolls-Royce which he has been doing ever since. Chris’ latest role sees him as Project Pilot for Future Programmes where he will be involved in a significant number of the projects that Rolls-Royce are pursuing whilst pioneering electric and hybrid electric propulsion. He explained how critical weight was in the aircraft design and that included his own weight as the pilot.

The lecture was followed a question and answer session led by the Nick Goodwyn, Master, and Paul Tacon, Clerk of the Air Pilots Company. My thanks go to Master and Clerk, and both presenters for a fascinating lecture on the future of electric powered aircraft.