Wessex Water
{{Short description|Company in England}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Wessex Water
| logo = Wessex Water.png
| type = Private company
| industry = Water industry
| foundation = 1973
| location = Bath, Somerset
| key_people = {{ubl|{{wd-chairperson}}|Ruth Jefferson (CEO)}}
| products = {{unbulleted list|Drinking water|Recycled wastewater}}
| production = {{unbulleted list|0.270 Gl/day (drinking)|0.460 Gl/day (recycled)}}
| revenue = {{unbulleted list|{{Increase}} £ 552.3 million (2020)|£547.7 million (2019)}}
| operating_income = {{unbulleted list|{{decrease}} £ 212.5 million (2020)|£228.4 million (2019)}}
| net_income = {{unbulleted list|{{decrease}} £ 66.6 million (2020)|£110.2 million (2019)}}
| num_employees = 2,547
| parent = YTL Corporation, of Malaysia
| services = Water supply and sewerage services
| homepage = {{Official URL}}
}}
Wessex Water Services Limited, known as Wessex Water, is a water supply and sewerage utility company serving an area of South West England, covering 10,000 square kilometres including Bristol, most of Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire.{{cite web | url=http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/aboutus/ | title=About the company | publisher=Wessex Water | access-date=10 June 2016}} Wessex Water supplies 1.3 million people with around 285 million litres of water a day.
The company is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991. In 2016, it had about 2,100 employees.Wessex Water website http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/About-us/The-company/Our-employees/
Wessex Water is owned by the Malaysian power company YTL Corporation.{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/malaysian-energy-group-ytl-buys-wessex-water-for-pound12bn-655509.html | title=Malaysian energy group YTL buys Wessex Water for £1.2bn | work=The Independent | access-date=13 November 2010}}{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Its headquarters are on the outskirts of Bath at Claverton Down, in a modern energy-efficient building by Bennetts Associates and Buro Happold.{{cite web|url=http://www.burohappold.com/BH/PRJ_BLD_wessex_water_operations_centre.aspx|title=Wessex Water Operations Centre|publisher=Buro Happold|access-date=13 November 2010}}
History
The company originated as the Wessex Water Authority, one of ten regional water authorities established by the Water Act 1973. These bodies were privatised in 1989. Wessex Water Services Limited was purchased by American company Enron in 1998 for $2.4 billion and placed in a newly formed subsidiary, Azurix. Following Enron's collapse, in 2002 Wessex Water was sold to YTL Power International of Malaysia.
The water authority had acquired the assets and duties of a number of public sector and local authority water utilities:
- Bristol Avon River Authority
- Somerset River Authority
- Avon and Dorset River Authority (except the part of the area of that drains to the River Lim)
- Bath Corporation
- Dorset Water Board
- North Wilts Water Board
- South Wilts Water Board
- Wessex Water Board
- West Somerset Water Board
- West Wilts Water Board
- Bournemouth and District Water Company
- Bristol Waterworks Company
- Cholderton and District Water Company
- West Hampshire Water Company
- West Lulworth Water Undertaking
Four people, three of them Wessex Water employees, were killed in an explosion at a company site in Avonmouth on 3 December 2020.{{Cite web|last1=Cork|first1=Tristan|last2=Grimshaw|first2=Emma|last3=Lane|first3=Ellis|last4=Roig|first4=Estel Farell|date=2020-12-04|title=Avonmouth explosion: Updates as four dead and one injured|url=https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/live-avonmouth-explosion-police-ambulance-4761076|access-date=2020-12-04|website=BristolLive|language=en}}
Operations
= Reservoirs and lakes =
The company owns and manages several reservoirs including Blashford Lakes in Hampshire, Clatworthy Reservoir, Durleigh Reservoir, Hawkridge Reservoir, Otterhead Lakes, Sutton Bingham Reservoir and Tucking Mill in Somerset, many of which, in addition to supplying drinking water, are used for recreation and as nature reserves.{{cite web |title=Reservoirs and lakes |url=http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/leisure/ |access-date=10 June 2016 |publisher=Wessex Water}}
= GENeco =
Wessex Water's GENeco subsidiary, established in 2009,{{Cite web |title=GENeco Limited |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06842738 |access-date=4 December 2020 |website=Companies House}} operates sewage treatment works. It recycles waste, produces renewable energy and provides the agricultural industry with fertiliser.{{Cite web |title=GENeco |url=https://geneco.uk.com/ |access-date=2020-12-04 |website=geneco.uk.com |language=en-GB}} In summer 2010, GENeco launched the Bio-Bug, a modified VW Beetle that runs on bio-gas generated from waste treated at sewage treatment works.BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-10881080 Waste flushed down the toilets of just 70 homes in Bristol is enough to power the Bio-Bug for a year, based on an annual mileage of 10,000 miles.{{cite web |title=Home |url=http://www.geneco.uk.com/ |website=geneco.uk.com}}
In November 2014, the UK's first bus powered entirely by human and food waste went into service between Bristol and Bath, run by tour operator Bath Bus Company.{{cite news |date=21 November 2014 |title=UK's first 'poo bus' goes into service between Bristol and Bath |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-30115137 |publisher=BBC News}} Since 2019, biomethane powers buses on one of Bristol's MetroBus routes.{{cite web |title=Bristol Community Transport unveiled as Metrobus m1 operator |url=http://hctgroup.org/about_us/hct_group_news/630/Bristol%20Community%20Transport%20unveiled%20as%20Metrobus%20m1%20operator |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214062728/http://hctgroup.org/about_us/hct_group_news/630/Bristol%20Community%20Transport%20unveiled%20as%20Metrobus%20m1%20operator |archive-date=14 December 2018 |website=HCT Group}} The gas is produced at the company's "bioresources and renewable energy park" in Avonmouth, which is run by GENeco.{{Cite web |date=2019-07-18 |title=Biomethane bus refuelling station builds on the legacy of the Bio-Bus |url=https://geneco.uk.com/Biomethane_bus_refuelling_station_builds_on_the_legacy_of_the_Bio-Bus/ |access-date=2020-12-04 |website=GENeco |language=en-GB}}
Performance
Wessex Water achieved a score of 4.53 in Ofwat's 'Satisfaction by company' survey 2012/13 (5 being ‘very satisfied’).{{cite web | url=http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/aboutconsumers/sim/rpt_com201305simrpt.pdf | title=Service Incentive Mechanism report | publisher=Ofwat | access-date=24 September 2013}}
In 2013, Wessex Water's compliance with drinking water standards exceeded 99.9% and the company maintained 100% compliance with sewage treatment discharge consents.
In both 2011/12 and 2012/13, the company's leakage figure was 69 million litres per day, compared to a yearly average of 73 million litres per day between 2005 and 2010.{{cite web | url=http://www.wessexwater.co.uk/About-us/Performance/Past-performance/ | title=Past performance | publisher=Wessex Water | access-date=10 June 2016}}
Wessex Water's greenhouse gas emissions totalled 119 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2018/19,{{Cite web|url=https://www.wessexwater.co.uk/corporate/strategy-and-reports/performance/annual-results-2019|title = Annual results 2019}} compared to 149 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2011/12 and 159 kilotonnes in 2012/13.
Key people
Ruth Jefferson has been chief executive of Wessex Water since October 2024.{{Cite web |title=Meet the board |url=https://corporate.wessexwater.co.uk/who-we-are/meet-the-board |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=corporate.wessexwater.co.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Loveday |first=Karma |date=2024-04-14 |title=Ruth Jefferson to lead Wessex Water, as Colin Skellett stays on as group chief executive |url=https://www.thewaterreport.co.uk/single-post/ruth-jefferson-to-lead-wessex-water-as-colin-skellett-stays-on-as-group-chief-executive |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=The Water Report |language=en}} Colin Skellet was the chief executive from 1988 to 2024; he continues as group chief executive with overall responsibility for all YTL's UK activities. Skellet was appointed OBE in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to business and to the WaterAid organisation.{{London Gazette
| issue = 60173
| date = 16 June 2012
| page = 12
| supp = 1
}}
Francis Yeoh, a long-serving director of YTL Corporation and currently the executive chairman of the conglomerate, is non-executive chairman of the board of Wessex Water.
Environmental record
- May 1998 – Found guilty of discharging over 1 million gallons of raw sewage into a Weymouth, Dorset, marina on August Bank Holiday Monday 1997, the busiest day of the year. The company was fined £5,000 with £500 costs.{{Cite news|title=Water firms pollute rivers every week|first=Michael|last=McCarthy|work=The Independent|location=London|date=29 May 1998|page=7|id=ProQuest document ID 312690147}}{{Cite news|title=Make the polluter pay the full price|work=The Independent|location=London|date=3 September 1998|page=3|id=ProQuest document ID 312727468}}
- March 1999 – Ranked 4th in the top ten list of "worst polluters" in England by the Environment Agency.{{Cite news|title=ICI Chemicals tops league table for pollution fines|last=Houlder|first=Vanessa|work=Financial Times|location=London|date=22 March 1999|page=7|id=ProQuest document ID 248234166}}{{Cite news|title=ICI tops list of Britain's filthiest companies; The Worst Polluters|last=Gregoriadis|first=Linus|work=The Independent|location=London|date=22 March 1999|page=4|id=ProQuest document ID 312834884}}
- May 2002 – Fined £8,000 for causing pollution in Dowlais Brook, Cwmbran in June 2001.{{Cite news|title=Water companies fined|work=Western Mail|location=Cardiff|date=22 May 2002|page=3|id=ProQuest document ID 341229258}}
- April 2003 – Fined £5,000 with £1,000 costs at Minehead Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to causing poisonous, noxious or polluting matter to enter the Washford River in Somerset.{{Cite news|title=Water company fined for pollution|date=1 April 2003|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2905809.stm|access-date=13 April 2013}}
- July 2003 – Described by the Environment Agency as one of the worst "repeat offenders" for pollution incidents.{{Cite news|title=Pollution still pays as firms shrug off fines: League table of offenders fails to stem neglect|first=Paul|last=Brown|work=The Guardian|location=London|date=31 July 2003|page=11|id=ProQuest document ID 246008755}}
- 2004 – Fined six times for environmental pollution incidents.{{Cite news|title=Muddied waters?|last=Adams|first=Guy|work=The Independent|location=London|date=30 September 2005|page=14|id=ProQuest document ID 310834496}}
- May 2007 – Fined £1,500 with £1,589 costs by Bristol magistrates after pleading guilty to one offence under the Water Resources Act 1991 of causing sewage to enter controlled waters. Untreated sewage had been allowed to pollute the River Frome in July 2006. The river was polluted again with untreated sewage at Frampton Cotterell in February 2007 and April 2007.{{Cite news|title=Water firm fined over sewage spill|first=Julie|last=Harding|work=Evening Post|location=Bristol|date=25 May 2007|page=59|id=ProQuest document ID 333779177}}{{Cite news|title=Water firm fined £3,000 for pollution|work=Western Daily Press|location=Bristol|date=25 May 2007|page=31|id=ProQuest document ID 334606821}}
- April 2008 – Fined £3,000 with £1,960 costs for allowing sewage to pollute the River Stour.{{Cite news|title=Wessex Water fined for river pollution|date=29 March 2010|url=http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/Wessex-Water-fined-river-pollution/story-11786152-detail/story.html#ixzz2QLvHzWkd|work=This Is Dorset|access-date=13 April 2013}}
- March 2010 – Fined £6,000 with £2,235 costs at Weymouth Magistrates' Court after allowing sewage to pollute the River Stour near Shaftesbury in March 2009.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website}}
- [https://www.ciwem.org/the-environment/a-fresh-water-future-interview-with-colin-skellett-of-wessex-water Interview with Colin Skellett of Wessex Water] – Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, April 2024
{{Clear}}
{{Water companies of the United Kingdom}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1973 establishments in England
Category:Companies based in Bath, Somerset
Category:Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom
Category:Water companies of England