Cheryl began her career as an environmental consultant specialising in contaminated land, which involved investigating, assessing and developing remediation strategies to regenerate brownfield sites and the surrounding communities. She progressed into designing and implementing pollution treatment systems as a remediation contractor to obtain hands-on experience, which she later utilised at both the Coal Authority within the Water and Metal Mines (WAMM) programme for DEFRA, and at Harworth Group, within her technical lead role for the Acquisitions team.
Cheryl has worked within the contaminated and pollution prevention area of the environmental industry for over 24 years, and recently joined Northumbrian Water (NWL) as a Project Manager for the Capital Delivery team. The decision to move into the water industry was a direct response to OfWat’s announcement of an ambitious environmentally-focused investment programme following the 2024 Price Review (PR24).
The Asset Management Plan (AMP8 – 2025 to 2030) programme faces crucial environmental and regulatory challenges, including attaining Net-Zero by 2030, decreasing sewage overflows and continuing to minimise the effects of climate change. In order to address these challenges, there is a strong emphasis on adopting nature-based solutions as the preferred and sustainable approach. Cheryl’s environmental experience with land regeneration, sustainable drainage systems and environmental impact assessments, combined with her experience delivering large environmental improvement projects, position her as someone who has the right skillset to help NWL rise to this challenge. The Capital Delivery team at NWL are responsible for implementing the planned investment on the water and wastewater assets. As a Project Manager, Cheryl works with the Tactical Planning team to develop and manage sustainable solutions throughout the project lifecycle to deliver affordable, operable and maintainable business outcomes for NWL. Cheryl confirms she is ‘excited to be part of this new initiative. Water is essential for our daily life and how the water industry performs now and, in the future, will be critical for the UK’s environment and people’s quality of life. I’m looking forward to being a part of safeguarding our resources through the effective identification of issues and innovative implementation of solutions’.
Cheryl holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science from the University of Central Lancashire and gained her MSc in Contaminant Hydrogeology from the University of Sheffield. She has continued her professional development by completing a diploma in Sustainable Business Practice through IEMA, expanding her knowledge into the project management profession through APM, and being actively involved with IES’s Land Condition Community (LCC).
Cheryl became a Full Member of IES and achieved Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) status in 2019. She has been an active member of IES’s Land Condition Community (LCC) ever since. Instrumental in developing the IES LCC’s ‘Signposting’ document, she has designed guidance to educate all IES members on how to obtain relevant information for the sector. Recently, Cheryl co-edited IES’s June 2023 edition of the environmental SCIENTIST journal, which focused on how global megatrends are impacting the land condition community, and how we need to respond to the challenges.
