Rain-Charm House
Kyl Cober Parc
Stoke Climsland
Callington
Cornwall PL17 8PH
t: +44 (0)1579 372140
f: +44 (0)1579 370066
e: info@wrt.org.uk
www.wrt.org.uk
WESTCOUNTRY RIVERS TRUST
APPOINTMENT OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Legal Status and History
Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) is a charity that was setup in 1995 to protect, enhance and restore the
westcountry’s rivers. It was the first rivers trust and plays a strategic role as part of the rivers trust network which
now has representation in catchments across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with new ones continually
forming. WRT has two offices; its headquarters at Stoke Climsland in Cornwall and a new office in Exeter. It
employs 30 staff and last year had a turnover of £3.5m.
The Trust is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee governed by its memorandum and articles of
association. The Trustees of the charity are also the directors of the company for the purposes of the Companies
Act. The Trust has a wholly owned subsidiary, Westcountry Rivers Limited, which trades as Tamar Consulting.
The profits of the subsidiary are covenanted to the Trust.
Aims and Objectives
The Trust’s aim is to protect, restore and enhance the rivers and streams of the westcountry by working at all
geographic scales from the river bank to entire catchments and at all educational levels from primary school
children to post graduate research. The principal aims for each area of activity are:
Catchment Management: to protect, restore and enhance rivers that have suffered damage or where habitats
are threatened. These may be remote streams and ditches which are collection points for ground water, salmonid
spawning grounds or a network of migratory corridors.
Fisheries Management and Recreation: to investigate better fisheries and fish stock management in rivers.
This is underpinned by research encompassing both species specific and social factors that affect fish stocks,
migration patterns and how rivers are exploited.
Organisation
The Trust has three main areas of delivery: Fisheries and Recreation, Catchment Management and commercial
for profit consultancy. Each delivery area is headed by a designated manager. There are also three cross-cutting
themes: Education, Fundraising and Data Management and Communications. Each theme is driven forward by
a theme leader who coordinates activities. This structure ensures better allocation of resources and identifies
cross-cutting responsibilities for all staff.
Westcountry Rivers Trust charity no. 1135007 and company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales, company no. 06545646
Registered office: Rain-Charm House, Kyl Cober Parc, Stoke Climsland, Callington, Cornwall PL17 8PH
President: Michael Martin MBE Chairman of the Trustees and Director: Kenneth Hill Director: Dr Dylan Bright
Trustees and Directors: Nick Allan, The Lord Clinton, Loudie Constantine, Sir Simon Day, Adam Fox-Edwards, Sir David Hoare Bt,
Nicholas Hood CBE, Charles Huntington-Whiteley, Jenny Ingham Clark, Henry Llewellyn, The Hon Massey Lopes, The Hon Mrs George Lopes,
Christopher Pole-Carew, Richard Simpson, Dr Andy Torrance, Mark Wilson, Humphrey Wood, William Wyldbore-Smith
Education: to work in schools, colleges and universities and through dialogue with government agencies and
utilities. The Trust aims to influence river and water management policies to embrace a more holistic approach to
catchment management.
Partnership Working: the nature of the Trust’s work is such that partnership working and public engagement is
essential to delivery. Volunteers are engaged from a wide range of backgrounds. Links and long term
relationships with education institutions and rivers trusts are maintained.
Fundraising: the Trust seeks funding from a variety of sources including government, water utilities, European
funding, grant awarding charities and private individuals through supporters and a legacy endowment fund.
Data Management and Communications: back office support offering a high standard of service to front
line staff is essential to achieving the Trust’s objectives. This includes communications, marketing, media
handling, geographic information systems (GIS), and the Confluence newsletter and website development.
Tamar Consulting: carries out paid for consultancy services for private and public sector customers on a
commercial basis and covenants its profits to the Trust through Gift Aid.
Trustees
The Trustees meet twice a year to consider the overall direction of the Trust and its future development and to
receive information about the issues and policies affecting the Trust’s work. The Trustees have delegated the
general management of the Trust to a Management Board normally meeting on a bi-monthly basis. The
Management Board provides a key forum for liaison between the Trustees and the management team. The
Board receives detailed reports at each meeting, monitors performance of the Trust against targets and budgets
for the year and considers development and longer term plans.
The Trustees are:
K L Hill chairman
N Allan
P Arnott
The Lord Clinton
R L Constantine
Sir Simon Day
A Fox-Edwards
Sir David Hoare Bt
N Hood CVO CBE
C Huntington-Whiteley
Mrs R Ingham Clark
K Lancaster
H B Llewellyn
The Hon Massey Lopes
The Hon Mrs George Lopes
M D Martin MBE, President
C G Pole-Carew
R Simpson
Dr A Torrance
M Wilson
J H A Wood
W F Wyldbore-Smith
Current Projects
2012 was a very productive year for the Trust. The Trust has shown initiative and leadership in seeking to unify
environmental protection activity across disparate sectors. The culmination of this is the production of the Tamar
Pilot Plan, which is a ground-breaking vision of how society can live sustainably on the land. Over the year the
Trust has been invited to present this vision to the House of Lords, to Ministers and to decision makers across the
country. In addition to these strategic advances the Trust has secured six substantial Catchment Restoration
projects across the region, which will deliver integrated catchment restoration for the next three years over a
significant proportion of the westcountry. The Trust continues to grow and has never been more active in the
delivery of its objectives through tangible catchment restoration and education.
Upstream Thinking is a £2.8 million project to deliver improved raw water quality across five westcountry
catchments working with farmers and funding improvements to farm infrastructure. During 2012 the team
contracted around £800,000 of grants generating £1.6m of farm infrastructure investment. This included more
than 15km of fencing and more than 40 farm capital works schemes.
Environment Agency Catchment Restoration Fund
A project spanning 3 years to 2015 and covering seven catchments worth £4 million which aims to restore rivers
and habitats to the Water Framework Directive standards of classification. Multiple partners are involved and the
work ranges from grant funding for farmers to sophisticated GIS (geographic information systems) presentation of
results.