Meet our Speakers below

Huw Williams, Environment Agency, is a Senior Managing Lawyer employed by the Environment Agency Legal Services in its Head Office. I started out as a lawyer in the Environment Agency’s predecessor body, the National Rivers Authority in its Reading office mainly doing water pollution enforcement work. I moved to Head Office shortly after the creation of the Environment Agency. My role covers advice to the Agency on water resources, water quality, fisheries and conservation and I manage the Agency’s team of permitting lawyers. I have been closely involved in the Environment Agency’s input into developments in water legislation over the last 20 years including Water Act 2003, transposition of Water Framework Directive and Water Act 2014.

Alistair Mills, Landmark Chambers, specialises in planning and environmental law and public law.  Alistair was instructed by the Environment Agency (led by Charles Banner) at an inquiry concerning water abstraction from the Test and Itchen Rivers.  His High Court work included a recent case on giving reasons in the context of EIA development: R (Historic England) v Milton Keynes Council [2018] EWHC 2007 (Admin), where he was sole counsel for the successful local planning authority.   Alistair is an External College Lecturer in Law at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he gives supervisions in Administrative Law.  His book Interpreting the NPPF: The New National Planning Policy Framework is due to be published by Bath Publishing in November 2018.  He is Assistant Editor of the Journal Judicial Review.  In 2017, he was appointed to the Attorney General’s Civil Panel of Counsel: C Panel. 

James Dodds, Envireau, is the Owner/Chairperson of Envireau Water. He is a nationally recognised expert in water management and water resources hydrogeology, particularly within the minerals, agricultural/horticultural and water bottling sectors, as well as the onshore oil and gas sector, and has a reputation for his tenacity with regulatory systems.  As well as providing technical support to the team, James – a Chartered Geologist – takes the technical lead on Expert Witness projects and regulator negotiation for new and novel permit and licence applications, having achieved the Cardiff University Law School Bond Solon Expert Witness Certificate.  James’ professional career started in 1986 working on waste and mineral projects in the UK, before moving to South Africa in 1988. There he spent 4 years principally working on a wide range of projects in the mining industry, related both to water resources and geotechnical hydrogeology. Much of the work was field based giving James a thorough grounding in data collection; borehole construction and testing; and monitoring systems. With the same company, James returned to the UK, and spent the following 6 years progressing to Principal level. During this time, he worked on a wide range of mining projects in Europe, Africa, CIS and the Middle East, as well as developing projects in the UK within the minerals and agricultural sectors. In 1998, James formed Envireau Water.

Hannah Harrison is the NFU’s Senior Legal Adviser working within the NFU’s in-house legal team. Hannah has advised the NFU for over 9 years on a very broad range of legal issues, including water law and environmental law. The legal team supports the NFU’s policy work in representing the interests of the organisation’s 55,000 farming and growing members. The team also litigates national cases where the NFU is a party or is providing national support.