WET News

Wright Water carried out as M&E delivery partner for C2V+ at Hesketh Bank wastewater treat- ment works. The project – to increase capac- ity while reducing operating costs and overall energy use – saw Eric Wright Water install the mechani- cal and electrical equipment as well as the control auto - mation. Working on a live site, they achieved the compliance date for the UV installation within budget and without any safety incidents. "The programme was tight," Whittle says. "The compliance date was 31 March last year and we resourced heavily in the period beyond Christmas to achieve that, w h i c h w a s a n e x c e l l e n t achievement – C2V+ and UU were over the moon with that." On the MEICA framework for Yorkshire Water's direct delivery team, he adds: "The overall frame- work is going really well – hitting compliance dates, below budget, and the client is happy. Yorkshire is certainly an area we'd like to build on the early successes." The agreements with Severn Trent and Scottish Water are for maintenance-type works, but Whittle says there is "certainly scope to advance and become a bigger player in those areas". While relationships are posi- tive, though, the AMS framework with United Utilities may change in 2019. "That's potentially going in a wwtonline.co.uk | APRIL 2018 WET NEWS 13 NEED TO KNOW • Eric Wright Group traces its roots back to a construction company founded in Fleetwood in 1923 called Brown & Jackson • The group is 100 per cent owned by the Eric Wright Trust, a charitable organisation with social improvement at the heart of its values, focusing on engineering education, young people and the elderly • The principle trading companies are Eric Wright Group, Eric Wright Construction, Eric Wright Civil Engineering, Eric Wright Facilities Management, Eric Wright Water, Eric Wright Partnerships, Maple Grove Developments and Applethwaite • Eric Wright Water's team is composed of professionals from across the civil, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control engineering disciplines THE VERDICT "Water company clients are striving for value for money through innovation, customer service and environmental improvement – and we are here to try to make a reasonable return on the complex work we do. The key challenge for us is to maintain profitability in a very competitive market. Ultimately we've got to get on those frameworks, and to get there you've got to be competitive." Neal Whittle, Eric Wright Water MD "Reputation is everything for us. Service is everything. Customer service for the water companies that we work for is massive." different direction, but we still hope to be involved in the procure- ment strategy for the level of work with United Utilities," Whittle says. It is another reminder of the challenging climate that contrac- tors in the water industry face. "There's always the fear fac- tor," he says. "If you lose one of those frameworks you're locked out for at least an AMP period, potentially even longer. "There's no guarantee that you'll be working throughout the AMPs with the water companies we currently work for, and that's the main challenge for us – to keep those relationships and keep those contracts, for future frameworks as well. "That's a difficult challenge for anybody working within the water industry, but I would hope that all the water companies that we cur- rently deal with – and C2V+ as well – would say that we do an excel- lent job for them, we're easy to deal with and we would do anything for our clients." The Hesketh Bank wastewater treatment works was a highlight of Eric Wright Water's recent work The Hesketh Bank project was completed on time, within budget and without safety incidents Neal Whittle joined Eric Wright as a quantity surveyor 15 years ago

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