Westbourne Communications

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

Westbourne Communications is a lobbying firm co-founded and run by James Bethell, the 5th Baron Bethell. It describes itself as a "small specialist agency that offers clients a fresh approach", placing strong emphasis on the need to change public opinion as a way of influencing decision-makers.

The traditional ways of conducting your communications are growing out of date. The economics of digital media have broken old monopolies on information. Scandals created suspicion about back-room decisions. Consumers expect choices.

At Westbourne, we believe that decision-makers will be influenced less by secretive lobbying and more by changing opinion about your issues.

Headlines and contacts are important but, increasingly, not enough. Nowadays it might be just as important to mobilise public supporters. Or else giving a voice to relevant specialist groups – experts, officials, professionals, locals, parents.

That’s why you need a new combination of skills. Researching opinion. Presenting your case. Adapting to feedback. Direct communications, often over the internet. Mobilising support. Rebutting opposition."

People

• James Bethell
• Maurice Cousins
• Emily Hamilton - head of media
• Lucy James
• Nicola Minford - works on the Campaign for High Speed Rail and Siemens accounts,
• Jennifer Powers
• Thomas Ricketts
• Campbell Storey
• Milly Doolan - Business Development Manager since June 2012
• Duncan Menzies
• Duncan Sedgewick - Energy Practice Chair, joined in 2012
• Simon Barrow - People Director
• Portia Swales - Associate Development Director ,
• Dan Large - joined Westbourne in September 2011 as campaign director for the Campaign for High-Speed Rail. He was formerly top aide to Conservative MP Edward Timpson MP, first working with him on his high-profile Crewe & Nantwich by-election victory in 2008.
• Ashish Prashar - Head of Communications from 1 July 2013, previously head of media relations at Ipsos MORI. He worked as communications and public affairs adviser to Matthew Taylor at the Royal Society of Arts and their 2020 Public Services project; prior to that he worked for the Conservative Party as a press officer for three members of the Shadow Cabinet, he has also volunteered for Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign. Prashar has worked on campaigns for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in Sierra Leone which laid the groundwork for their 'Malaria Health Campaign' and worked as the election press secretary to the Mayor of London: Boris Johnson on the Back Boris 2012 campaign.

Infrastructure practice

• Adrian Shooter, former chairman of Chiltern Railways, was made chairman of the practice in May 2012
• Paul Chapman, former MD of High Speed 1, was also made associate partner in May 2012

Former staff

• James Frayne was a partner at Westbourne until he left to join the Department for Education as Director of Communications in March 2011
• James Wickett-Whyte , worked on the Yes to High Speed Rail campaign, no longer listed as Westbourne staff on the APPC register as of April 2013, now a consultant at Curtin & Co on the community consultation team
• Harry Spencer - was an intern and researcher at Westbourne, is now an account executive at Edelman

Clients

As of April 2013:

• APPG for High Speed Rail
• Birmingham Airport
• Campaign for High Speed Rail
• Core Cities
• Euston Estate Limited
• GB Railfreight
• Healthlogistics
• Ingeus UK
• Legal & General
• Siemens PLC
• The Society of Chief Librarians

Feb 2013

As above, but breakdown of clients involved in the APPG for High Speed Rail included- TSSA, Bruntwood, South West Trains, Abellio, Eurotunnel, Core Cities

March - May 2012

• 50p Tax Campaign | Alliance for Affordable Solar Energy | Atkins Global | Birmingham Airport | Birmingham City Council | Campaign for High Speed Rail | Cheviot Asset Management Limited | Electralink Limited | First Group PLC | Ingeus UK | Legal & General | Policy Exchange - (The Wolfson Economics Prize) | Railway Industry Association | Siemens PLC | Stagecoach Group | Sydney & London Properties Ltd | Systra UK

Former clients

Westbourne's website displays the following companies' logos on its 'about Westbourne' page:

• New Schools Network
• Private Equity Foundation
• Ministry of Sound nightclub - Westbourne founder James Bethell was previously MD of the club
• TheCityUK
• Bain Capital
• Sino-Bridge
• Abellio
• Stagecoach Group
• Network Rail
• Deloitte
• Yingli Solar
• Cheviot Asset Management

Affiliations

• Nothing British - Westbourne's founder Bethell set up this campaign against the BNP, drawing upon support from powerful British military figures
• Doctors for Reform - launched this campaign which represented 1000 medical practitioners backing government plans to overhaul the NHS and which was supported by Reform, the free-market thinktank that has received funding from private healthcare companies.

Contact, Resources and Notes

Westbourne Comms Company was incorporated as a private limited company (No. 06936185) on 17 June 2009. Its registered address is 17 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH. Founder James Bethell is the sole company director.

Contact

Address:17 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH

Email:jennifer.powers@westbournecoms.com

Website: www.changeopinion.com

Previously:

55 Tufton Street

London SW1P 3QL

Tel: 02033970100

Email: campbell.storey@westbournecoms.com

Resources

• Jamie Doward, High-speed rail opponents 'portrayed as posh nimbys' by Tory peer's lobbying firm: PR agency accused of scare tactics and invoking the class divide in a 'coldly calculated' campaign to push coalition's case for HS2 network The Observer (England), April 7, 2013, OBSERVER HOME NEWS PAGES; Pg. 3, 957 words
• Anna Minton, New report: Scaring the living daylights out of people, Spinwatch, 27 March 2013
• Anna Minton on Westbourne's response to Spinwatch local lobbying and planning abuses report, Spinwatch, 08 April 2013