United recruit

From the archive, first published Monday 5th Mar 2007.

The service which runs and maintains Bradford's gas supply gas taken on eight new engineers.

United Utilities has taken on the staff to work at its Bradford, Leeds and Heckmondwike depots.

The jobs will involve responding to members of the public who dial the national gas emergency number.

Engineering operations manager Peter Christie said the company currently employed around 310 first call engineers throughout the whole of the North East, Yorkshire and northern Cumbria, as well as a number of contract staff.

The new recruits are former contract staff who are being taken onto the company's direct labour force. The move gives them more job security, more development opportunities and benefits such as pensions and share schemes.

"We operate a service which is always on call for the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

"That means responding to reports of gas leaks and dealing with incidents where people have lost their supply. It's a job we pride ourselves on doing very well and, of course, it's vital to make sure our system stays safe and reliable for the millions of people who rely on it every day," he said.