TW Spotlight Award

Lanes duo win service award after hospital visit

Thames Water has given two Lanes Group wastewater engineers customer service awards after they used one of their rest breaks to visit an elderly customer in hospital.

The 85-year-old customer lived in one of three semi-detached houses in Surbiton, South London, which had been having problems with drains.

Dan Merry and Luke Tibby were deployed by Lanes, Thames Water’s wastewater network services maintenance partner, to pump out the foul drain every day while the cause of the drain problems was investigated.

The pensioner regularly went out see the waste water engineers because she wanted to be assured she could continue to use her toilet and sink.

Then, one day she did not appear.

A neighbour told the Lanes pair she had fallen over whilst out shopping, injuring her ankle and wrist, and had been admitted to hospital.

Dan Merry said: “She lived by herself, and we were concerned about how she was. We had a break coming up so we drove to the hospital to visit her.”

During the 20-minute journey they stopped to buy her some flowers.

Dan said: “We couldn’t stay long because we had to get back to work. But she was pleased to see us. We didn’t want her to feel lonely.”

Thames Water was so impressed with their caring attitude that it gave them a Spotlight on Excellence Customer Service Award

Speaking on behalf of the pair, Dan said: “I was shocked. Thinking about the welfare of customers is part of our job. I didn’t expect any thanks for it.”

Lanes Group Technical Director Andy Brierley, who made the award nomination, said: “We were proud and very pleased with what Dan and Luke did.

“It was a selfless heartfelt act of kindness that impressed everyone at Lanes and Thames Water.”

Dan also helped solve the blockage, which had been caused by construction workers pouring concrete down the 100mm-diameter pipe, affecting wastewater services to three homes.

He used the water jetting equipment on his CityFlex jet vacuumation tanker unit to blast some of the concrete from the pipe. A Lanes excavation crew cleared the rest.

 

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