Famous for its outstanding quality, combined with live demonstrations of equipment and several trenchless systems, it was a real pleasure to take some time out from manning the UKSTT stand, promoting the membership benefits of the society to anyone who came within range, to take a look round some of the stands and equipment.

I was interested to spot the continued trend at the starting end of equipment ranges to produce ‘cut-down’ basic but quality units to keep costs down for the small or entry contractor yet try to ensure full functionality is maintained. I spotted and discussed pipe bursting and HDD basic rigs and spotted microtunnelling systems of various exhibitors.

In addition, new to the show, manufacturers and contractors from Europe and the United States were there as well. So it is getting worldwide recognition with exhibitors, just as it already has with visitors, who again attended from many places including Japan, Nigeria, Canada and the United States.

I spotted an articulated robot for climbing internal waste stacks for reopening lateral connections after lining. I make no claims as to its robustness or operational practicality but the fact that someone has developed a robotic cutter that can traverse through a 90 degree bend and be pushed up a waste stack then remotely held in place while the cutter, several metres up the stack, reopened the laterals seemed very interesting and useful.

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Visitor numbers were substantially up from 2006 and while occasional rain was not appreciated, the breakfast seminar on day two certainly released a rush of visitors mid-morning. Even with visitors spread out over the larger numbers of stands and more extensive outdoor exhibitor and demonstration areas, this was the period that felt most crowded and hectic.

The topic of the seminar was the transfer of sewers from private to public ownership. Phil Mills from Water UK spoke for the water and sewerage companies; Toby Sidall from Dyno Rod and Martyn Hopkinson from Future Environmental, for the contractors and Pam Brockway and Roy Barnes from the Woodlands Residents Association for the customers, all ably chaired by David Sanky from South Staffordshire Water. We got a real treat.

‘Informative’, ‘interesting’, ‘helpful’ and ‘useful’ were just some of the feedback comments received. With the event overrunning only because 90 per cent of the audience wanted to stay for an extended Q&A session following the presentations, David finally called a halt after an additional 30 minutes.

A really huge thank you to all the speakers, the Chairman and the visitors for the quality of presentations, balance of control and mutual professional respect from everyone and sensible informed questions that encouraged careful answers and views.

The key concern overriding the process was a plea to government to announce a clear step-by-step strategy with deliverable milestone dates and keep to it. Don’t mess about, don’t dither, make the political decision and then support the industry and its necessary adjustments to accommodate the changes with training, skills and business system developments to enable small business to deal successfully with the water and sewerage companies.

I always want to see more people there. Everyone I spoke to, and I got to loads of them if they came anywhere near the UKSTT stand, enjoyed a ‘Hero’ chocolate and praised the quality of the exhibition without solicitation or arm twisting.

So despite the credit crunch, UKSTT, Westrade and all the exhibitors still seem to have put on another top class show – next time bring a friend or colleague as well – after all it’s not a day out rather an opportunity to get up to date on your TT CPD! – See you next time in 2010.