Disconnector Online

A sister magazine to Utility Week, Truck & Driver, has launched a campaign to persuade lorry drivers and operators - and that includes utilities - to cut down on diesel spills from over-filled or badly sealed fuel tanks.
The statistics of 16 deaths and 3,000 serious accidents involving motorcyclists skidding on split diesel between 2000 and 2004 are bad enough, but a colleague of the great man knows the personal pain behind those statistics. When he was 17, he crashed his beloved Suzuki 185 on spilt diesel, breaking an ankle and removing large areas of skin from arms, legs and back (OK he was only wearing jeans and a T-shirt!).

Utilities must get tired of hearing about skills shortages, rising costs and over-heating of the London economy driving up the price of civil engineering. So next time a contractor starts bleating about having too much work and not enough labour why not wave this week's issue of Contract Journal at them?

Shock has been expressed at the news that Jonathan Hodgkin, director of network regulation at water regulator Ofwat, is to replace Richard Ackroyd as director of regulation and capital investment at Yorkshire Water. Ackroyd last week took up the chief executive's role at Scottish Water, replacing Jon Hargreaves who took early retirement last December after four hectic years at the helm of Scotland's publicly-owned water undertaker.