Bradford boasts the hi-tech nerve centre of Yorkshire Water, with a call and operations centre all under one roof. Reporter Carolyne Coyle went along to find out more and see how problems are tackled.

IT IS the heartbeat of the company - where the whole of Yorkshire's water supply is controlled and monitored.

If there's a leak in York, the water moguls at Buttershaw, Bradford will be on to it in a jiffy.

This is the Regional Operations and Communications Centre (ROCC) - the hub of all things operated by Yorkshire Water.

A large map of Yorkshire speckled with 'hot spots' and several flashing information boards are the first thing you see when you enter that communications centre - the heartbeat of the company.

Based just off Halifax Road, more than 400 people work at the company's regional operations headquarters.

It is also home to the region's call centre - a hive of activity and the first point of contact for 1.6 million customers who ring in every year.

It is one of the best in the country - and in the top one per cent of all call centres world-wide - and recently picked up the 1999 Utility Achievement award for training.

About 60 'agents' answer thousands of calls every day, the majority of which are bill inquiries.

Julie Jackson, communications and tours co-ordinator, says the call centre is very proud of its new award for which the company beat other prestigious rivals.

By 11am the call centre staff have dealt with 1,848 calls.

"This is a fairly quiet day, when the quarterly bills go out in a few weeks we'll be extremely busy but we will still strive to answer calls within an average time of 24 seconds," she said.

Although most of their calls are genuine and do help the company detect problems, they also have the odd strange call.

"Sometimes we're not sure if they're prank calls but we always follow them up. Once a man rang asking where a stone at the end of his road had gone. It was removed by Yorkshire Water engineers when they were doing some work and wasn't put back.

"Another lady rang saying we were poisoning her with blue water but it was only in her toilet, another rang to tell us of beasts getting in through her pipes. We arrange a courtesy call just to check everything's OK - it's all in a day's work and we owe it to our customers," she says.

Calls from customers about burst pipes, sewage problems, low water pressure and dirty water are passed on to the ROCC.

"From here," explains ROCC duty manager Frank Lawson, pointing to the computerised map, "I can see exactly what's going on and where and can pin-point exactly where problems are."

On the map - which spans from Skipton to Sheffield, and Darlington to Dewsbury - a dot represents each call received from a customer reporting a complaint.

As more calls come in from one area this becomes a larger circle and then Mr Lawson knows there's a problem.

"As calls come in to the call centre, perhaps it's a contact telling us of a burst pipe, then it's plotted on the map by the caller's postcode."

Mr Lawson zooms in on a larger dot and looks closely at a map of a street from where a number of calls were made. He clicks on the screen and the underground pipes are highlighted in red and blue.

Press officer Richard Sears says there are five or six duty managers who work 12-hour shifts in ROCC at the modern nerve centre.

"They're in the driving seat, the all-seeing eye of Yorkshire Water and if there's a major disaster it's on their shoulders to organise our response to it," he says.

An incident room is ready and waiting for any such disasters.

"On New Year's Eve all staff were in and we sat watching the map waiting for midnight and the dreaded Millennium Bug. We thought that at midnight all hell might break loose. But luckily we had no disasters and were able to open the champagne," adds Mr Sears.

In fact, Yorkshire Water had ensured that all its equipment was Year 2000 compliant and the majority was modified or replaced well in advance.

Mr Lawson can also access information about the region's reservoirs and see how full they are.

"Bradford is very proud of its water supply and gets most of its water from the reservoirs in Nidd Valley," he says.

With the click of a few keys the computer flashes up a graph of a reservoir at Chellow Heights which shows it is 83.9 per cent full. "That's excellent," says Mr Lawson.

When a problem occurs at an 'asset', namely a reservoir, an alarm sounds at the ROCC and information flashes up via electronic telemetry system.

Specific problems, such as a burst drain, are dealt with by FACT - the field activity communications team - which allocates and sends out engineers to urgent jobs around the county as they come in and plan work for the next day.

Staff in the ROCC also monitor the weather via a 24-hour link with the meteorological department. They can access information regarding forecasts for the next few days and keep a close eye on rainfall.

"It's our raw material. We must be the only people who jump for joy when it rains, but it means full reservoirs and water for our customers," says Mr Sears.

He adds that wet weather also means less demand on the water supply as people are less likely to do their washing or water their gardens.

"So when most people will whinge when they see it's raining again, we're more than pleased to be putting up our Yorkshire Water umbrellas," adds Mr Sears.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.