Davey wrote:

I read here some weeks ago that the installation of a Smart Meter was
not mandatory, but I have just received a notice about the impending
installation of a water meter in Essex.

Is it a water meter, or a smart water meter?

A few years ago Severn Trent had a division producing smart water
meters. By the time I got smart gas/elec meters and was interested to
know if they could fit a smart water meter, they'd flogged that division
off, and I think the main company became USA based, and now we just have
S****er in the UK and the consumer division doesn't have the option of
installing one.