At a major community cohesion conference, a Yorkshire Water chief spelled out the need for firms to get to know the societies their customers lived in.

Yorkshire Water is now one of Britain's top water companies but a decade ago, at the height of the drought, it hit the headlines because of the public's view of how it handled the crisis.

Corporate affairs manager Richard Sears confessed to the conference in Bradford yesterday the company had almost hit problems in the district when it proposed work which would cut off water supplies for more than 30 days - during Ramadan when Muslims concentrate on their faith. Washing is essential before ritual prayers.

On another occasion the company sent letters to a Bradford estate about major work starting.

"Two generators were stolen from under our noses, youths smashed pipes we were going to work on the next day and we threatened to pull off the estate."

But a councillor told him they could not use the same forward planning techniques on the estate as they would in Harrogate because it was an entirely different community. "He said the letters we had sent would not even have been read."

So they worked with the schools and community and helped set up activities for the youngsters while work went on. "If we had made efforts to understand the community we could have saved a lot of time and effort," he said.

The company employed 1,500 people at its Bradford headquarters, who were mainly white, male and over 40 and it realised it must create a workforce which was "truly representative."

Hundreds of staff were now visiting schools and the company was helping with community projects. It was spending £100 million to improve services to Bradford.

"Civil engineering at this scale can cause significant disruption. We have listened to concerns and done the equivalent of keyhole surgery. The results have been fantastic and the customers have been more than satisfied. We are delighted with our new home here and it is a pleasure to do business with Bradford."

The conference at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, was organised by Bradford Vision, which is made up of representatives from all the district's major organisations.

The event depicted how the district is tackling the issue and included an exhibition of school projects. Pupils at Shibden Head and Bracken Hill primary schools, which have been twinned as a community cohesion project, told the audience about the success of the scheme.