PUPILS at school in Chester were given the chance to find out more about a Severn Trent project which is passing right by their school.

The water company welcomed children from Dee Banks School to a special event to find out more about work to link Huntington Treatment Works to Boughton Treatment Works, known as the Chester Resilience project.

Pupils were also given the chance to make a permanent mark on the pipe that is being installed in the ground.

Donning hard hats and hi-vis, they made their way down to the site where they could see the work going on and were told what is going on and how it will benefit the city.

As part of the day, cakes were served up for everyone and goodie bags were given to everyone who took part thanks to contractors Forkers and Severn Trent, and a donation was made to the school thanks to Forkers, which will be used to purchase new tools for the workshop.

(Image: Severn Trent)

Young people were also challenged to come up with names for the diggers on site for a competition and all the names are being looked at to find a winner.

But the most important part of the visit was that the pupils were all given the chance to sign their name or put a handprint on the pipe that is being installed in the ground.

Peter Bradbury, 14-19 Lead at Dee Banks School, said: “This is a fantastic event for the pupils at Dee Banks School and we're really grateful to Severn Trent Water for their fantastic donation to the school which will fund new tools for our workshop.”

The Chester Resilience scheme is one of the biggest investments Severn Trent has made in the city, spending £16.5million to install a 3km water pipe from Boughton Water Treatment works to Huntington Water Treatment Works to help secure the future of the network for generations to come.

Catherine Webb, Severn Trent Community Communications Officer, said: “It was wonderful to host this event and welcome the pupils and teachers from Dee Banks School along to our site and tell them all about the project that we have going on in Chester at the moment.

“We wanted to make sure that the event was marked properly, so getting the youngsters to sign the pipe or stamp it with a handprint seemed the perfect way to do that and everyone seemed to have a great time getting involved and finding out more.

“We want to thank all the children for coming along and we hope that is was as enjoyable for them, as it was for us.”

Severn Trent customers in Chester receive a water-only service from the company, with around 100,000 customers in the city and 46,000 households.   

The water treatment works at Boughton, on the outskirts of Chester has been treating water from the River Dee and providing drinking water for the people of Chester for more than 160 years.

For further information or to be kept updated on the works as they take place visit www.stwater.co.uk/in-my-area/planned-improvements .