Lanes powers ahead with Scottish industrial cleaning service

An industrial cleaning service operated by drainage and wastewater specialist Lanes Group plc has expanded so rapidly since its launch in 2019 that it now supports customers across Scotland.

Services delivered by the operation, based at the Lanes Aberdeen depot, including tank cleaning, wet well cleaning, interceptor cleaning and digester cleaning.

Lanes Contracts Manager Neil Biggerstaff, who set up the service, said: “We have a hand-picked team of very skilled waste professionals and the most modern high suction wet and dry vacuumation vehicles.

“This is allowing us to deliver a very high quality, highly responsive service that our customers know they can rely on, even in the most challenging environments.”

The industrial cleaning service, which has DISAB and KOKS wet and dry vacuumation units in its fleet, has completed projects at locations across Scotland, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lossiemouth, Kirkaldy, Elgin, Fort William, and the Shetland Islands.

The team also specialises in cleaning tasks that require complex confined space entry, for which it has its own confined space entry rescue team to safeguard operatives while they work.

In a recent project, at a wastewater treatment works, the Lanes industrial cleaning team used a mobile screener to remove rag and grit during a settling tank cleaning project, reducing the amount of waste that needed to be disposed of from 600 tonnes to 60 tonnes.

In another, a multi-skilled team cleaned intake tanks at a water treatment works on Shetland and then redeployed to clean other assets, including a pump chamber and drainage pipes.

Neil Biggerstaff, who has more than 23 years’ experience in the industrial cleaning sector, including in the oil and gas and whisky distilling industries, said: “This flexibility is a big advantage for our customers.

“It means we can put together a programme of work across very different waste assets that makes use of the safest and most sustainable remote-access cleaning technologies while controlling client costs.”

Neil Biggerstaff works closely with other Lanes colleagues to ensure drainage service customers can take advantage of his team’s specialist services.

They include Lanes Aberdeen Area Development Manager Mark Morrice. He said: “Having Neil and his team available and ready to go is a huge benefit for the Aberdeen depot’s customers. “When we need additional vacuumation power, or confined space cleaning expertise, we have it to hand. It’s what sets Lanes apart here in Aberdeen and, in terms of service range, right across Scotland.”