St Ives Direct, a major printing firm based in Leeds has recently benefited from Yorkshire Water’s asset maintenance service.

The firm is part of St Ives plc, which has plants across Europe and the US providing a range of printing solution services from books to corporate literature.

The planned maintenance of private underground water and wastewater assets can save a business in costs and also in disruption from emergency repairs by identifying and preventing asset failure. St Ives Direct contacted Yorkshire Water as sewage and surface water was backing up causing flooding on the site.

Simon Redfern, Yorkshire Water’s senior project technician, says: “With hundreds

of meters of underground pipework, St Ives needed support finding the cause of the flooding, which was clearly disrupting their operations.

“The tailored nature of our asset maintenance service meant the company did not need to purchase a whole package of services from Yorkshire Water. They simply decided what they needed to meet their immediate needs.”

On the wastewater side, the range of services provided include:

  • Sewer lining to repair drains and sewers
  • Blockage clearance using high-pressure water jetting
  • Planned maintenance to prevent blockages occurring
  • Root cutting – tree roots infiltrating sewers and drains can obstruct flows and lead to problems
  • Gully clearance to prevent flooding and the associated disruption
  • CCTV surveys to identify the condition of sewer pipes or locate blockages

Each service can be purchased separately, so a business can choose which service, or combination of services, meets its needs.

Redfern says: “St Ives needed to locate what was likely to be a blocked sewer, and after advice from our technicians decided to book a CCTV survey to find the cause of the problem.”

Two significant blockages were located, and St Ives received a DVD showing the CCTV footage taken during the survey, giving the company’s management team clear evidence of the problem.

Tailored service

A report into the condition of the sewer pipes surveyed also provided the necessary information for the company to use in its maintenance programme.

Following on from the CCTV results, Yorkshire Water removed the blockages using high-pressure jetting the same day.

Yorkshire Water can tailor its service to meet the individual needs of its customers, ensuring the best service can be provided for the requirements of each business.

Redfern says: “Our asset maintenance service can provide highly tailored services to customers. When assets such as private pipes, sewers or valves fail the potential problems for businesses can be complex.

“As well as the obvious costs and inconvenience, infrastructure failure can result in non-compliance and health and safety hazards. So our asset maintenance service can provide a vital and swift response, nipping potential problems in the bud.”

Customers choose from a range of services and only pay for the services they need.

Carl Silverwood, health, safety and environment adviser for St Ives Direct, says: “We were delighted with the speed of response from Yorkshire Water. Getting the blockages cleared on the same day was very important to us as the inconvenience was considerable.”

For details of Yorkshire Water’s asset maintenance programme, visit www.yorkshirewater.com.

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