A CONTRACT with Yorkshire Water led to a helicopter mission for civil engineering contractor ETM.

The company, based in Yorkshire, had to replace a water main that runs across natural peat moorland in Swaledale.

But work had to be carried out without disturbing rare nesting birds on the Site of Special Scientific Interest.

English Nature stipulated that vehicle movements were kept to a minimum, and ETM had a deadline for completing the work - between the end of the breeding season for the protected red grouse and the start of the black grouse shooting season.

"We had to get the pipes to the site quickly and without damaging the moorland or disturbing the wildlife, which is why we decided to get the job done by helicopter," said Dave Crosby, of ETM.

"We were able to get all materials to the working area within a period of six days.

"The alternative would have been to use tracked machines across long distances of steep moorland."