Chorley pupils get behind the scenes look at United Utilities’ construction project

A group of pupils from Southlands School in Chorley have been to see for themselves the construction of two new underground storage tanks that are being constructed within their school grounds.

Work is progressing well on the £10m project to install the tanks which will provide 3.6 million litres of additional storage within the area’s wastewater network helping to reduce the need for storm overflows to operate during periods of heavy rainfall.

With work taking place in the school grounds, the team from United Utilities has been keen to explain to pupils why the tank is needed, and why their school was chosen as the location – so they opened the doors for interested year nine and 10 pupils to take a look for themselves.

Project manager Syed Ramis Ali explained: “We knew some of the pupils were interested in finding out more so we chose a time when there was a short break in construction and invited them onto site to see the work for themselves.

“They had a lot of questions and we spent time explaining how the tanks will operate and why their school was the right location. It would be great if we inspired some of them to aim for a career in engineering.”

The United Utilities team also supported the school’s recent ‘World of Work’ week.

Assistant Head Teacher at Southlands School Gary McGurk added: “The pupils have been very interested in the project and watching it progress, so we were delighted when United Utilities offered interested pupils the opportunity to get out onto site.

“The team also supported our ‘World of Work’ week where local companies come along and talk about the types of career opportunities, they have available and routes to entry from apprenticeships through to graduate programmes.

“With a company the size of United Utilities, there is such a wide range of career options spanning everything from engineering to finance and it’s great for pupils to find out more about that.”