7:10pm Monday 27th April 2009
By Kathie Griffiths
Tourist village Esholt already attracts coachloads of visitors thanks to its Emmerdale connections but now a new tour is about to go on offer – round its sewage works.
As well as enjoying a pint in the original Woolpack Inn, visitors will be able to book themselves on a trip round Yorkshire Water’s Waste Water treatment works for a peek behind the scenes.
Yesterday the water company called in a team of ‘special agents’ in readiness to reveal some of their best kept secrets about how the site works and how it spends customers’ money.
Over the next few months, the lid will be lifted on all the information uncovered by the ‘agents’ and everyone in Yorkshire will have the chance to go on one of the fact-finding tours and see close up what happens there.
Earlier this year work began to create a new £500,000 environmental visitor centre at the works by the River Aire.
The centre, which is the company’s first waste water visitor centre, will provide schoolchildren, community groups and the public with an opportunity to learn about how the company treats sewage and safely returns water back to the environment.
Graham Dixon, director of Yorkshire Water’s environmental business unit, said: “To be able to give the local community the opportunity to learn about the waste water side of our business is something that we have wanted to do for some time.
“The new environmental visitor centre promises to be a valuable interactive education tool for the region that we hope will be enjoyed by thousands of schoolchildren and the public alike.”
The centre will partially be self-sustaining. A rainwater harvesting system will collect water for the washrooms and solar panels will provide heating alongside that generated from the works’ incinerator.
To find out more about visits go to yorkshirewater.com/book or telephone 0845 1242424.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk