Petition To ‘Save Our Local Water Company’ – With Further Concerns Raised Over Dee Valley Sale

A petition has been started to ‘save’ Dee Valley Water, with more concerns raised over the future of the staff and service provided.

Yesterday we reported on the proposed £78.m sale, and then later the ‘major concerns’ reaction from local MP’s over the announcement.

The petition (viewable and signable here) has been launched yesterday entitled “Save our local water company”, with a statement matching what a Unite The Union representative who works at Dee Valley told us today.

“We are deeply concerned over the potential takeover of Dee Valley Water by Severn Trent Water due to the impact on our local staff and customers.”

“We pride ourselves on our Welsh identity and the high quality of personal service we can offer to our local customers. Our team of dedicated staff are all from the local area and have worked incredibly hard to provide a high quality essential service to the people of North East Wales.”

“Our concerns with the potential Severn Trent takeover are that there will be significant job losses in an area with relatively high unemployment.

“The benefit of the local service that we give to our customers will be lost with any centralisation by Severn Trent, we are the leading water company for billing customer service and leakage. These are important issues for our customers and will be jeopardised from any centralisation and loss of local jobs.

“We feel that this takeover is being driven by Ofwat to benefit their regulatory model due to the complexity of our cross border issues relative to our size and their opinion that we are not a good performer. We feel this view is incredibly unfair as we have made significant improvements in service to be one of the leading service providers.

“We are a great believer in the benefits of the Dwr Cymru not for profit model for water supply, with it being an essential service and not a commodity. We feel that as Severn Trent are a huge English corporation that the people of North East Wales will be disadvantaged from the profit seeking nature of the supplier.

“We would like to ask the Welsh Government if they can use their powers to safeguard the jobs of the local employees and the quality of service to our local customers.”

He added,  “Some potential suggestions we have for doing so are:

• Seek guarantees from Severn Trent on job security for our staff.
• Facilitate a purchase of Dee Valley Water by Dwr Cymru to operate as a North East Wales and Chester division under the not for profit model.
• Facilitate a purchase of Dee Valley Water’s Welsh supply area by Dwr Cymru to operate as a North East Wales division under the not for profit model”

Severn Valley’s takeover documents are public (here) including a glossy presentation that notes the takeover deal would represent “…an opportunity for Severn Trent to deliver attractive returns to shareholders through applying its successful operating model across an enlarged asset base, in a contiguous geographic area.”

As part of the documents Severn Trent say they “attach great importance to the skills, operational experience and technical expertise of the existing employees of Dee Valley. Severn Trent intends to maintain front line field force operations at Dee Valley’s current locations in Wrexham and Chester.

“Severn Trent confirms that, following implementation of the Acquisition, the existing contractual and statutory employment rights of all Dee Valley Group employees will be honoured. Dee Valley employees will also have access to job opportunities across the wider Severn Trent group, including at its nearby Shrewsbury office.”

Plaid Cymru AM Llyr Gruffydd said: “Dee Valley Water covers parts of Wrexham, Denbighshire and Flintshire as well as Chester and it’s vital that the good customer service for which it’s renowned is not lost.
“The takeover document makes it clear that local suppliers will lose out under Severn-Trent’s procurement policy and it’s unclear what the future holds for existing staff. Water services in Wales are best delivered here in Wales – not from Coventry.”

Dee Valley PLC’s company documents  are here on Companies House for the PLC, and here for the Group PLC.

The official Dee Valley Water site has been updated with details of the Severn Trent offer here, which just points to this legalise style offer documents, which have an agreement that points to talks starting back in July.

We are told local AM and Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure Ken Skates will be meeting regarding this matter later today.

Perennial local Conservative candidate Andrew Atkinson has also said: “I’ve contacted the Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns who’s assured me of his assistance.”

An EGM is due in December where the final proposals will be likely voted on by shareholders.