Day 1

Morning debate-11:45am

We will be discussing water quantity with the help of Tim Farr, Belinda Bailey and Ian Gould.

Tim Farr

Tim Farr is currently Vice Chairman of the Association of Drainage Authorities and the Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board, Chairman of the Southwell Flood Forum and a Trustee of the Trent Rivers Trust. He has been Chairman of ADA’s Policy & Finance Committee for five years.

Belinda Bailey

Belinda Bailey is the Sustainable Farming Manager for Syngenta. Graduating with an BSc (Hon) in Agriculture and Land Management she joined Syngenta’s legacy company, Zeneca, in 1996 and holds both her BASIS and FACTS qualifications.

Ian Gould

Ian Gould is a Director of Oakbank Game and Conservation Ltd and has worked in the environmental side of farming for over 20 years. His background in seeds and plant breeding has led to a keen interest in how plants can be used to solve problems

Afternoon debate-13:15pm

We will be discussing water quality with the help of James Beamish, Tom Storr and Alice Green.

James Beamish

Born and brought up on a country estate in South Norfolk as the son of a gamekeeper it was the summer harvest job from the age of 14 that fuelled the passion for a career in agriculture. In January 2016 James took up the position of Farm Manager on the Holkham Estate and has since been appointed as a Director of Holkham Farming Company (HFC).

Mark Stubbs

Mark is a Lincolnshire farmer and a 2021 YEN winner.

Alice green

Alice Green is part of the Land Use Policy team at the CLA. Alice has a background in sustainability and leads on climate and water policy and advice. Founded in 1907, the CLA is the membership organisation for owners of land, property and businesses in rural England and Wales.

Day 2

We shall be flipping the sessions around for the 24th. Each session on each day will have different panellists who will be able to answer your questions and give you their opinions and ideas.

Morning debate- 11:45am

We will be discussing water quality with the help of Richard Bramley, Dr Simon Bowen, Paul Kelly and Anglian Water

Richard Bramley

Richard is an arable farmer at Manor Farm, Kelfield situated to the south of York in the county of Yorkshire, England. The farm grows a wide variety of crops including bread wheat, malting barley and potatoes irrigated using trickle irrigation.

Dr Simon Bowen

Dr Simon Bowen trained as a nematologist before specialising as potato agronomist initially at SRUC (SAC) in Scotland before moving to East Anglia to run the agronomy and research programme for a large potato growing cooperative.

Paul Kelly

Paul is a Dairy Farm Manager for the University of Cambridge.

Afternoon debate- 13:15pm

We will be discussing water quantity with the help of Dr Simon Bowen, Rob Burtonshaw, Ian Gould and Anglian Water.

Ian Gould

Ian Gould is a Director of Oakbank Game and Conservation Ltd and has worked in the environmental side of farming for over 20 years. His background in seeds and plant breeding has led to a keen interest in how plants can be used to solve problems

Dr Simon Bowen

Dr Simon Bowen trained as a nematologist before specialising as potato agronomist initially at SRUC (SAC) in Scotland before moving to East Anglia to run the agronomy and research programme for a large potato growing cooperative.

Rob Burtonshaw

Rob Burtonshaw is the third generation of his family to run and own Farm Services Ltd, land drainage contractors based in Warwickshire. In 2012 Rob was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship providing a truly unique opportunity to study land drainage across the globe, his study title was “Land drainage and its role in Farmings’ future”.

Our Debate

“We want farmers and landowners to join us in conversation about the impact that water will have on their businesses over the next five years.

We would like everyone to come and join a debate on water quality and water quantity, what can we do together to find the answers. Anglian Water want to know the challenges that farmers are facing and what would help make difficult decisions around water on their farms easier for them.

We understand that we have to look at food security as well as water security, each are so important to us all and we can’t have one without the other.

The Water Hub will bring together different opinions and thoughts to your questions as well as the answers. We are very fortunate to have panellists from a wide range of leading farm businesses, as well as academics and agricultural organisations such as James Beamish from The Holkham Farming Company, Belinda Bailey Syngenta’s Sustainable Farming Manager, Rob Burtonshaw member of and Jill Hewitt Chief Executive of the National Association of Agricultural Contractors, Alice Green CLA Policy Advisor on Climate and Water, Richard Bramley NFU Environment Forum Chair and farmer, Dr Simon Bowen Head of Knowledge Exchange for BBRO, Tom Storr Research Agronomist for Dyson Farming, Ian Gould Director of Oakbank Seeds and Tim Farr Vice Chairman of the Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA).

The timings for our morning session on both days will be 11:45am-12:30pm and the afternoon session on both days will be 13:15pm-14:00pm.

During the morning session on 23rd we will be discussing water quantity and the afternoon session will be focused around water quality. We shall be flipping the sessions around for the 24th.

Each session on each day will have different panellists who will be able to answer your questions and give you their opinions and ideas.”