Salmon and Trout Conservation UK - Hampshire
Water Resources Officer Out of date
The water officer's job is to monitor applications to discharge water into or extract water from a water system in Hampshire and raise a warning where he (or she) believes this may affect the water system adversely. It is not hard work and does not take a lot of time but it does require efficiency and judgement.
It is hard to describe and quantify the advantage we will all gain by having an active water resources officer. In joining the Salmon and Trout Association, most of us have decided that our sport needs protecting and improving and that we want to be part of it. It is probably not the big ticket items where a water resources officer is going to make a difference. It is more likely to be the questions asked around the smaller benign looking requests where no-one has thought to ask “what are the risks to our water habitats from this decision?”.
The Role
Typically the job entails the following:-
- Read through the planning applications to extract from or discharge into the water systems in Hampshire. The information is sent by Head Office and there are about two or three applications per month.
- Lodge an objection where a particular application may affect the water system adversely. Previously this has been about three per year
- File all applications.
- Attend some branch committee meetings to update the committee.
Judgement does improve with experience and learning to recognise the danger signs helps you work smarter. We don’t look upon it as a job for life, but we do feel that it is one of the core services a branch should provide.
We were told that the Water Resources officer should be an exception to the aim that no person should hold the same office for more than three years as the learning curve is not steep but long. Clearly this advice was heeded, our recent officers have been:
- Malcolm Hutchings 1999 to 2009;
- Robin Tarrant 2010 to 2017.