£1 million investment creates new drainage depot to boost service and sustainability

Lanes Group plc has opened a new drainage services depot to serve West London and the Thames Valley.

The ‘West London' depot is the first new general service depot the UK's largest independent drainage specialist has opened since 2012.

It is also the first Lanes depot to operate its own fleet of water waste tankers, a business innovation that will be rolled out to other depots during 2017.

Lanes Group is a leading provider of drainage diagnostics, repair and rehabilitation services across all business sectors, including utilities, construction, insurance, energy, manufacturing, government, retail, rail, highways and logistics.

The depot, in Slough, Berkshire, has 27 personnel, and has been supported with a capital investment of £1 million for new specialist vehicles, equipment and refurbished office space.

The move enhances the company's ability to support customers in the region with a comprehensive range of drain unblocking, repair and rehabilitation services, and improves the sustainability of its operations. It increases the company's Lanes operational network to 20 full-service depots and five utility hubs. Lanes now has two depots covering London. The other is at Rainham, in Essex.

Lanes Group Development Director Richard Leigh said: "This is an exciting and important development for us. It's based on our strategy of delivering the fastest and most effective drainage solutions in the UK.

"Our aim is to provide a national service, with the best equipment and expertise, and the flexibility to respond quickly to customer demand at a local level. Lanes West London epitomises this approach.)

"The ideal location of Lanes West London will reduce journey times for our drainage teams, optimising our service response and improving the sustainability of our business, two things our customers value."

The Lanes West London depot is co-located with the rail division and insurance division of UKDN Waterflow (LG) Ltd, another Lanes Group company. This allows customers to draw on a wider range of expertise, including civil engineering.

Lanes West London has four recycler jetting and vacuumation tankers, four main line CCTV drainage survey vans and three van pack general jetting and unblocking vans, as well as the new vacuumation tankering service.

Richard Leigh said: "Lanes has the largest fleet of recycler jet vac tankers in the UK, but having four of the vehicles at a full-service Lanes depot is special even by Lanes standards.

"Recycler jet vac tankers can filter and reuse their water, so can stay on station for longer, increasing productivity by up to 68 per cent, and completing projects such as sewer cleaning and highway culvert desilting faster and more effectively.

"Introduction of a vacuumation tankering service is a new development for us, and is based on experience and expertise we've developed operating up such services for utility clients over the last 18 months.

"It's very much in line with our aim to deliver, for our customers, the right drainage assets and know-how, both in terms of capability and cost, when they need them, and where they need them."

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