CHRISTOPHER Bartlett will steer the Wye into a new era as the first chairman of the river's new Navigation Advisory Committee (NAC).

Overseen by the Environment Agency, the NAC was set up to manage navigation on the Wye and Lugg after a long-running legal row over who had the right to do so.

Mr Bartlett, aged 61, from Ross-on-Wye, will head up a committee that will hold all of its meetings in public. The first of these meetings was held at The Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye, on Wednesday, November 26.

Mr Bartlett spent much of his working life in the fuel industry holding a senior position with British Petroleum before his retirement in 1992.

He spent a short time as a technical officer with the United Kingdom Petroleum Industry Association and he was a programme manager on behalf of the Royal Navy for the Ministry of Defence/Defence Research Agency from 1993-2001.