From 1 July 2024, we have two ombudsman, Sarah Daniel, who has been in the role since 2019 and retires this year and John Withington who will take on all new complaints. 

John has a long career in customer experience in public and regulated sectors. He was a director with both the Legal Services Commission and the Solicitors Regulation Authority before spending seven years as a Senior Ombudsman with the Financial Ombudsman Service, where he contributed to major regulator change to drive greater fairness for consumers in the pricing of insurance products. He went on to lead the creation of a new voluntary regulatory service within the funeral industry as CEO of IFSO and then to work as a leadership consultant creating new quality standards within the sector. He brings a wealth of relevant dispute resolution experience to the role, of Waterways Ombudsman.

Sarah was an ombudsman with Ombudsman Services and assisted in the investigation of thousands of complaints on a range of subjects. Sarah believes in working with the providers and regulators and using feedback from complaints to improve services for all.

Both Ombudsman work part-time in the role and have no staff.

Details of the the Ombudsman Job Role and Job Description can be found by clicking on the links.