Anger At Possibility Court ‘Could Disregard Shareholder Views’ In Dee Valley Water Takeover

A decision will be made at the High Court on 25th January which will determine the fate of Dee Valley Water’s 180 staff and the provision of water supply to Wrexham and Chester.

As we reported on the 13th of this month a clever work-around was executed, where staff and customers had acquired shares to have their say on the potential takeover by Severn Trent at the shareholders’ meeting on 12th January on a decision on if to rule in or out the small shareholders.

The court case is unprecedented in the UK and has been described as a ‘David vs Goliath battle’ between local staff and customers vs a FTSE 100 company.

In a statement issued earlier today, we are told from Dee Valley sources, “Some of the 450 have expressed their anger that potentially the court could disregard their vote, calling into question the rights of small shareholders. The case is even more interesting when you consider that water supply is a monopoly business and therefore this was the only way that customers could have an influence on who their supplier is.”

“The staff don’t want Severn Trent because they will cause job losses amongst the dedicated workforce, they have not guaranteed they will use our local suppliers and will take jobs and control of an important Welsh resource out of Wales. We do not see how they can possibly provide any benefit to our customers as their bills are more expensive and their service worse so we cannot see the point in this takeover.

“We very much welcome the support we have received form our local community, customers and elected officials, we are proud of the service we have provided to our customers for the last 150 years and don’t want to see it suffer if the takeover goes through.”

The staff and customers of Dee Valley have been well supported by elected officials in trying to keep Dee Valley Water independent. This group have written to Liv Garfield, CEO of Severn Trent and asked her to respect the wishes of the local community and withdraw her takeover offer.

A copy is below: