Let me introduce you to Jack. Jack is 36 years old and is currently running a development business with a business partner and old time school friend. After Jack started working for a national developer company between bouts of time at engineering and planning companies, he decided to go it alone. Armed with a lot of knowledge and with his old time friend, who was now an accountant, he was sure of success doing what he loved.
Jacks wife and two children depend on him for a good income to comfortably live in their 3 bedroom house with the woods behind and the park nearby.
With his company Jack feels that he can only take on so much risk and decides he will limit his developments to 25 houses at a time. Although it means he has to do more developments to get his desired income, it does mean he can enjoy more quality time with his family without the worry of a big project going too badly wrong.
His wife likes the work he does, it mean she gets to drive a BMW and although he may miss a few weekends he can afford to take them away for a week or two to beautiful destinations like the Peak District or Pen Y Fan. She enjoys his company on these great trips and walking is one of her hobbies where she can take herself away from it all.
She knows he worries about a lot of things on some of the sites he secures and some just seem to never end. He speaks of negotiating with people at companies that employ more people than our local town, who just seem to push a button to stop all progress. And the local councillors and town leaders who he never seems to get on with however hard he tries.
On one site, she told me, was in a bit of a remote spot. She saw it with him and said how beautiful it looked, what an exquisite site and how it could be turned into something of such significance.
In years to come, we would drive by it and proudly say to our children look at what we did, how are you going to change the world in your sphere?
Things started to unravel, quicker than expected. Without either of us thinking about it, this development would need all the services a normal development would need, all from destinations unknown. The hardest part was dealing with the wastewater.
She mentioned about the different options of treatment plants, way too smelly he said, pumping it away, way too expensive. They even suggested putting into a big hole in the ground like a septic tank or cess pit (she didn't understand what these words meant back then) until they quickly realised that was no longer legal.
After a while they realised they would need to pump it away. The maintenance would land with the local water company and all would be well. Until they approached the water company. She showed me the email they were given which was treasured as a testament to the stage they were at, it mentioned about five publications with all the guidance of how to create a system that the water company would be happy with to take the maintenance on. Why can't they just maintain what we install without the fuss? They also want to own the land it is on? No house within 15m? No house within 15m of the wet well? What is a wet well? Do we need that bit of it?
At this point they decided to take a break, it was becoming overwhelming. Jack who was normally quite relaxed after the first day of the holiday didn't talk much for the whole four days, even after a 30 minute walk through the most breath taking scenery. He needed someone to talk to that could see the predicament and just understand, take it out of our hands and move it on.
Jack's business partner was on leave for two weeks and hadn't heard about the whole scenario until he landed back. Jack dropped him a note when he arrived back and he suggested speaking to an old friend of his who was in the consultant game doing this for big developers all the time. Finally a break through.
She described the look on Jacks face when he came off the phone, the blood came rushing back to his face in what must have been elation, he knew what these involved and had used a company on several occasions based in Reading. Speak to Tim he said, he's a bit of a nerd but he'll speak to you as if he has done it all his life. He's only a youngster but keen as mustard to get people out of the trouble your in.
Next came the long awaited call. She said he had about a thousand questions to ask and was a bit worried this Tim character wouldn't be there, be busy or just not be interested in schemes my size. Would he rip me off knowing that I don't know the industry or take me for a ride. The old guy seemed to be quite happy with him and I trust that guy but....or so many unknowns. Let's call him. Straight through to Tim in about 25 seconds. Here goes...
We exist as a company that are keen to help developers out with their day to day problems when it comes to waste water pumping. Jacks scenario is not unique. A lot of smaller developers really do punch above their weight when it comes to the planning authorities and water companies on their sites. What a lot of them do not very often come across is the need to pump the waste water from their site for good reason. It can be very complex and very expensive making some sites no longer worth the effort. What we do is to make it as easy as possible for every site to work so that you can show to future generations what you created for the world.
We're here to help you create beautiful developments where gravity drainage isn't an option.