THAMES ESTUARY PARTERSHIP ANNUAL FORUM 2011

SPEAKERS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Martin Baggs was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Thames Water on 4 March 2010, having previously served as Interim Chief Executive Officer from December 2009 and as a Non-Executive Director since 2006.

Before joining Thames Water, Martin was an Executive Director with the Macquarie European Infrastructure Funds holding responsibility for a range of utility investments across Europe. Prior to that Martin was Managing Director at South East Water and also served as Operations and Asset Director at Southern Water.

Martin has extensive water industry experience covering all aspects of the utility business. He has a recognised successful track record in the delivery and implementation of new initiatives and the leadership and management of diverse functions through organisational change.

Chris Baines has been Honorary President of the Thames Estuary Partnership for the past ten years.

He is one of the UK's leading independent environmentalists and an award-winning writer and broadcaster. His early career was in horticulture, landscape contracting and international landscape design consultancy. This was followed by fifteen years teaching landscape design and management at post graduate level. Throughout the 1980s and early 90s he presented several series of environmental programmes on national television. For more than twenty years he has been self-employed.

He works as an adviser to senior executives in the public, private and voluntary sectors and has long-standing professional links with major companies in the construction, minerals, water and financial investment industries. He provides guidance on biodiversity and green infrastructure in the government’s proposed ecotowns and he is an adviser to the water regulator Ofwat. From 1998 until 2004 he was a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund and he is he is a member of the design Review panel of the Design Council and Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He has recently delivered the keynote address at the launch of the Green Pilgrim Cities initiative in Assisi, Italy. He is an adviser on sustainability for the 2012 Olympic Village and for the World Heritage city of Bath. He is also advising on green infrastructure for the regeneration of the Heygate Estate in Elephant & Castle.

Chris is particularly active in the voluntary sector. He is a national Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and chairs RSWT’s Strategic Development Panel. He has been President of AECB (the Association for Sustainable Building) for the past 20 years. He is also a patron of the Bankside Open Spaces Trust and Hon President of the Essex Wildlife Trust. In 2004 he was awarded the RSPB's medal of honour for his contribution to environmental conservation.

Richard Benyon was elected as the Conservative MP for Newbury in 2005 with a majority of 3,460, winning the seat at the third attempt.

Responsibilities:

Richard was born and brought up in West Berkshire. As well as being a local farmer and businessman, he has been involved in a number of local organisations. These include the Citizens Advice Bureau, Mary Hare School and the Kennet and Pang Valley Countryside Project. He was a local Councillor in the 1990s.

As an MP, Richard was the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Fisheries and Wildlife. He was part of the team that monitored the work of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and formulated Conservative policy in this area. Prior to this appointment he was a Party Whip. He has also served on the Home Affairs Select Committee.

As a former soldier and a founder Trustee of the charity Help for Heroes, Richard takes a great interest in defence issues and the welfare of servicemen and their families. Other special interests include, Africa, in particular Zimbabwe, Northern Ireland and, of course, rural affairs.

He has campaigned on a number of health issues including care for those with learning difficulties in the NHS. He is a member of the All Party Kidney Group and the All Party Group for Specialist Orthopaedic Services and Hospitals.

Richard is married to Zoe, with whom he has two sons, Louis and Jimmy. He also has three sons, Harry, Thomas and Freddie, from his previous marriage.

Peter Bye was selected to chair the Thames Estuary Partnership in October 2010. Until June 2009 he was a Board Member of the Environment Agency with special responsibility for Flood Risk Management. He was previously Chairman of the Anglian Regional Flood Defence Committee. During his time with the EA he worked closely with the team responsible for the Thames Estuary 2100 project. In 1998 Mr Bye conducted an independent review of the Easter Floods for the Agency and Government. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Managers.

After active service as an infantry platoon commander during the Malayan Emergency, Mr Bye studied at Bristol and Liverpool Universities. Formerly Chief Executive and Director of Social Services for Suffolk County Council, Peter Bye was for five years Chairman of the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust and a member of the Strategic Health Authority. For ten years he chaired the National Development Team for People with Learning Disabilities. He was a Governor of the Suffolk College of Further and Higher Education and chaired several charities in the county. He is a Trustee of the Suffolk Foundation. In 1998 he was appointed as one of Her Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenants for Suffolk.

David Cartlidge was educated at Newcastle High School following which he joined the National Coal Board as a management trainee in mining engineering.

Commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1966 as a Seaman Officer, he specialised in underwater warfare, sub-specialising in diving and bomb and mine disposal. During a thirty year Naval career he served at sea and ashore in a wide variety of appointments (including six in command) from Whitehall to Hong Kong via the Persian Gulf.

After the Navy, he joined the PLA in 1996 and enjoyed six years as Harbour Master for the “Upper District” (Teddington to Dagenham) before being appointed as Secretary to the Authority in 2002, retiring in 2007.

Since leaving the PLA, David has worked as a company director and undertakes consultancy work. He lives in Deptford, south-east London, by the Thames.

David Cowell David works in the Marine Planning team at the Marine Management Organisation, with a specific focus on those areas that will be planned in the future. He has responsibility for stakeholder engagement in future plan areas and has been working with partners in these areas to gather information that will assist the planning process.

He has several years experience of managing and working on various Departmental funding programmes and implementation of Government Policy at a local level.

Howard Davidson, Director, Environment Agency, South East England.

Howard took up the post of Director in October 2008. He is a chartered civil engineer by profession and has 30 years experience of environmental management throughout the UK. Howard has responsibility for the entire Agency’s activity within the South East of England.

Howard is chair of the Water Resources in the South East group and chair of the River Basin panels covering the South East of England.

He works in partnership with various organisations on environmental issues – he is a member of the London Resilience forum, Thames 21 (board member) and is a member of the London Waterways Commission.

Howard started his career as a civil engineer having qualified from Birmingham University. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management and the Chartered Institute of Civil Engineers. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

He is married with three sons. He’s a keen sailor and qualified yacht master.

Victor Freeney is Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Thames Water, and his team is responsible for a number of areas including the relationship with national, regional and local government. This involves working proactively with more than 100 local authorities in the region and managing relationships with over 150 MPs and MEPs. He oversees the company’s major public consultations - such as the web-consultations on the 25 year Strategic Direction Statement, Taking Care of Water, the 25 year draft Water Resources Management Plan, the five year Strategic Business Plan and the Thames Tunnel. Victor is also responsible for Thames Water’s customer research. Victor manages Thames Water’s relationship with the Consumer Council for Water. He is a civil engineer by profession and has been with Thames Water for ten years.

Jill Goddard, Executive Director, Thames Estaury Parternship. Jill took up her appointment in July 2005. She originally studied Business Studies which gave her a qualification in accountancy, mercantile law, economics and marketing. Her interest in water began with volunteering for British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV). She has worked both in the charity sector, the commercial sector and for two London Local Authorities.

Prior to joining TEP, Jill worked at the London Borough of Lewisham, spearheading a variety of environmental projects, including Deptford Creek, which focused more and more on the link between environmental, social and economic regeneration.

She currently manages all new projects and the TEP Action Groups with their wide ranging remit of Planning, Fisheries, Biodiversity, Dredging Liaison, Education, Research and Recreation and attends the Thames Archaeological Steering Committee, chaired by English Heritage.

Jill also acts as the neutral chair for project partners on specific projects such as the Holehaven Creek Operational Management Plan, written by the Port of London Authority, to monitor new river transport impacts on an SSSI.

As a small organisation, all TEP projects are overseen by Jill, and ultimately by the Trustees while much of the daily development and running is made possible with help from her dedicated staff. Her skills are those of project management, facilitation, promoting dialogue between disparate forces, stakeholder engagement and budgeting.

Peter Jones

Dr Peter Jones is a senior lecturer in the Department of Geography, University College London, where he specialises in research on different approaches to governing human uses of marine ecosystems.

He is leading research on governance challenges raised by marine spatial planning as part of an EC funded project on the monitoring and evaluation of spatially managed marine areas (MESMA). This research aims to support the development and implementation of marine spatial planning in Europe's seas. His research particularly focuses on how state, market and participative approaches can be combined to achieve strategic MSP objectives.

He is also internationally recognised as an authority on marine protected area governance issues. He has been an advisor to the European Common Fisheries Policy and England's conservation agency on marine protected area governance issues and is currently undertaking a project for the United Nations Environment Programme to develop good practice guidance on how different approaches can be combined to effectively govern marine protected areas, based on case studies around the world.

John Meehan has worked in Essex and East London for 18 years on major green infrastructure programmes.
Before he move to Essex, John worked on the restoration of historic landscapes, starting his career at Painshill Park and worked on other important sites such as Stowe, Chartwell and Osborne House. He was a founder member of the De Bois Landscape Survey Group and later worked with Land Use Consultants.
In 1996 John became the Director of Thames Chase Community Forest, which straddles the boundary of Essex and London. During his time there, the Thames Chase partnership planted over 1 million trees and opened 900 hectares of greenspace to the public. He also oversaw the writing of the new Thames Chase Plan in 2000 and the funding and building of the Thames Chase Forest Centre. Finally he set up the Thames Chase Trust which is the primary body for running the Community Forest today.

In 2006, John set up and established Groundwork South Essex which carries out community, landscape and educational projects across the 5 local authority areas of Thames Gateway of South Essex. He set up the new trust, established the trustees and moved the Trust into new offices in Thundersley. As a result, the Trust is established as a major environment organisation in South Essex.

Over the past three years John has managed the Parklands Programme in South Essex, managing and liaising with five projects in Thurrock and Essex. The funding which was derived from CLG totalled £9.7 million. This attracted another £11 million, releasing £21 million to be spent on flagship projects in the Thames Estuary. These have included, work on the Wildspace project for the RSPB in Thurrock, helping Essex Wildlife Trust create a 647 hectares nature reserve centred on the Mucking landfill site, continuing to improve Basildon’s Wat Tyler Country Park, contributing £5.2 million to the restoration of the 900 hectares of RSPB marshes in Basildon and Canvey Island and finally contributing towards the creation of the Canvey Wick nature reserve.
Currently John is leading an Interreg IVa Two Seas project called “MaxiGreen”, an abbreviation for Maximising Green Heritage. The total project is value is £5 million, of which £882,000 will be spent in and around the South Essex Marshes.

The South Essex project aims to link many of the existing green space and Visitor Centres to one another and to the C2C railway line. The project also aims to establish the Thames Estuary Path as a footpath through the Marshes and connect it to transport nodes. The project aims to make the South Essex Marshes an identifiable landscape area with a coherent Vision for the future.

Professor Yvonne Rydin is Professor of Planning, Environment and Public Policy at University College London’s Bartlett School of Planning and Director of the UCL Environment Institute.

She has extensive knowledge of environmental policy, governance and sustainability at the urban level. Her research projects include a study for HEFCE’s Higher Education Innovation Fund on Sustainable Construction and Planning in London as well as EU projects on decision-making for the sustainable city and the implementation of local sustainability indicators. She has a particular interest in networks of governing, the role of social capital and the potential for learning to deliver sustainable urban development. Her current EPSRC-funded research is on urban energy initiatives and the built environment. During 2007-8 she chaired the Lead Expert Group for the DIUS Foresight project on Sustainable Energy Management and the Built Environment.

Past book publications include: Networks and Institutions in Natural Resource Management (co-edited with E. Falleth) (2006; Edward Elgar); Urban and Environmental Planning in the UK 2^nd edition (2003; Palgrave); and Conflict, Consensus and Rationality in Environmental Planning: an institutional discourse approach (2003; Oxford University Press). Her latest two books are Governing for Sustainable Urban Development (published by Earthscan) and The Purpose of Planning (published by Policy Press). She is an accredited Mediator and a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

James Trimmer, Head of Planning and Partnerships, Port of London Authority. James is the officer directly responsible for the initiation, co-ordination and implementation of the PLA's land-use planning and transport policies and the fostering of strategic and local partnerships involving the PLA throughout the tidal Thames.

James is a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Town Planner and has been employed by the PLA for over eleven years. Prior to his current appointment at the PLA, he worked for a number of planning consultancies, principally advising the port sector, and also within local government. He is TEP’s longest serving Trustee!

Sue Wells is the Project Manager for Balanced Seas, one of the four regional projects set up to help develop recommendations for future Marine Conservation Zones. She has extensive experience in marine protected area management in several countries, and has worked for organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Recently, she spent five years in East Africa, working on projects that involved local communities, fishermen and other stakeholders in marine protected area planning.

Sue grew up on Chichester Harbour and learnt to sail in her father’s home made dinghy, and is very familiar with the south-east coast and its marine and coastal issues, many of which are similar to those faced by the stakeholders she has worked with overseas.