Yorkshire Water is using a device no bigger than a shoebox to help meet new environmental standards and help it save up to £1 million a year.

The metal box contains a data processing system which monitors flow rates from 250 of Yorkshire Water's waste treatment plants. It will help the company satisfy pollution limits set out by the Environment Agency.

The device, developed jointly between scientists from the company and Sheffield University.

Costing £500 each they are a tenth the price of concrete structures Yorkshire Water had originally planned to use to monitor water flow.