We are the champions: new team ready to work for water customers in Central and Eastern England
A NEW team of consumer advocates is ready for the challenge of championing the interests of water customers in Central and Eastern England.
The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) has appointed four local consumer advocates to work closely with the region’s water companies and to ensure they are acting in the best interests of water customers.
Paul Quinn, Alison Dedicoat, Gill Holmes and Richard Powell, will represent customers of Severn Trent Water, South Staffordshire Water, Cambridge Water, Anglian Water and Essex and Suffolk Water.
Bernard Crump, Central and Eastern Chair for CCWater, said: “Our local consumer advocates play a crucial role in holding water companies to account to ensure they are delivering the services customers expect.
“They are looking forward to the challenge of providing a strong and effective voice for customers throughout the region.”
Local consumer advocates press water companies to make sure they are delivering value for money and improving their customer service by tackling the causes of customers’ complaints.
Meet the team:
Paul Quinn is an environment and sustainability professional. He worked for the Environment Agency (EA) and its predecessors for 36 years having leadership roles in policy, strategic planning and operations, and latterly as the Midlands Region Strategic Environment Planning Manager. He is founder of the Gloucestershire Environment and Business Forum; was previously the EA representative on the Board of Sustainability West Midlands; Chair of Climate East Midlands Management Group and a member of Advantage West Midlands Waste Management Panel.
Alison Dedicoat is a former policy manager at the Consumer Council for Water and former head of policy at the Gambling Commission. She was also previously project manager for the Water Act 2003 at Ofwat. Her qualifications include MSc Water Resources Technology and Management; a Postgraduate Certificate in Regulation and Prince2 Practitioner.
Gill Holmes is a solicitor and former senior manager and legal adviser to lay Justices’, Courts’ Service (Bedfordshire). She has a Certificate in Management from Henley Management College, is an Independent Person (Standards Issues) for four local authorities in the East of England and volunteer governor of a primary academy.
Richard Powell OBE is an independent consultant. He is Vice Chair of the Institute of Environmental Managers and Assessors (IEMA) and Chair of Wild Anglia, the Local Nature Partnership for Norfolk and Suffolk. Richard spent 26 years as Regional Director of the RSPB and Regional Director for the National Trust in the East of England. He was Chair of the region’s Heritage Lottery Fund Committee, a founding board director for EEDA and Sustainability East. He was awarded an OBE for his work in the Environment and Sustainability in June 2005.
(ENDS)