Water utility team gives oak wood a wildlife boost

A ten-strong team of water utility professionals from Lanes Group plc has spent the day helping protect a wildlife haven in West London.

The team of volunteers were taking part in a Wild Work Day at Ten Acre Wood in Hillingdon on behalf of the London Wildlife Trust.

Lanes is an Investor in Wildlife for the London Wildlife Trust and the Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) and is committed to supporting the trusts’ conservation projects.

The ten colleagues work for Lanes Utilities, the wastewater network services maintenance partner for Thames Water.

Supervised by London Wildlife Trust colleagues, they cleared undergrowth, cut down vegetation and picked litter along the Yeading Brook which runs next to the wood.

Personal Assistant Daisy Whitby, who took part in the Wild Work Day, said: “It was a very good opportunity to get out and support both wildlife and the local community.

“Ten Acre Wood provides habitats for important plant and animal species, including birds, small mammals and insects. It’s also a favourite place for local people to go for a walk.

“We were very happy to help the wildlife trust which does a brilliant job of maintaining the wood. It gave us all a great sense of achievement by the time we’d finished.”

Lanes Utilities, which has its headquarters in Slough, Berkshire, completes more than 1000 jobs a day, unblocking, cleaning and repairing sewers and other assets for Thames Water’s 15 million wastewater customers.

Protecting places like Ten Acre Wood, is a vital part of the work, because sewage floods, often caused by avoidable blockages, can devastate wildlife areas.

Lanes water utility teams across the UK remove thousands of tonnes of sewer blockage waste, a significant amount of it plastic, from sewers, wet wells, and pumping stations every year.

During October 2019, Lanes has been running Unblocktober, the first world’s first month-long initiative to protect sewers from misuse and stop plastic pollution getting into waterways and oceans.

Unblocktober has been backed by thousands of people and organisations.

It encourages responsible use of sewers through the disposal of fats, oils and grease (FOG) in bins, or at recycling centres, and through also putting items like wipes in bins rather than flushing them down toilets.