In Weatherall Green and Smith's annual shopping centre top 20, shoppers, retailers and investors judged Bluewaters shopping and leisure centre as Britain's number one, knocking Gateshead's Metro Centre off the top spot and voting the development in the UK's most attractive. This stunning location nestles amongst 50m high cliffs surrounded by tranquil landscapes of lakes, (of which there are seven), woodland and parkland. Bluewater's striking architecture and innovative retail design is unique for a shopping enviroment. It was conceived by American civil architect Eric Kuhne. With its distinctive modern style it is heavily influenced by English culture, local folklore and the Kentish surroundings. Bluewater offers quality restaurants, a stimulating environment and a place to enjoy a pleasant break.

The retail park is split into three different malls where each has a different feel. The Guildhall offers the discerning shopper an exclusive selection of classic and high fashion retail, lifestyle stores and gourmet restaurants and cafes. The Rose Gallery has a family focus, with major high street retailers, children's ware, toy shops, an adventure play area and family restaurants. The Thames recreates shopping in the West End, designed to appeal to young fashion conscious shoppers. Adjacent to each shopping centre mall, Bluewater has created three leisure areas for guests to take a break from shopping and relax, where they can choose from almost 40 restaurants, bars and cafes. Each area reflects the different styles of the malls' gourmet food and lifestyle at the Village, entertainment and media at the Water Circus and family-style dining at the Wintergarden.

The metering solution
Due to the extensive nature of this development there was a need to provide individual water meter facilities in all retail outlets and other areas in the shopping centre, requiring 350 water meters in total. The tender for the supply of water meters was won by Haden Young, with whom Switch2 have established a good working relationship over the years. Given this close partnership Switch2 were able to provide a competitive package which offered the advantage of high quality products and a comprehensive range of customer support services. The size of the scheme meant that Switch2 had to commission and co-ordinate the location of each individual meter in 350 separate outlets. This included the supply of type 501 PR Water Council Approved, Class D, Potable water meters ranging in sizes from 15-50mm diameter, isolating valves on the inlet and outlet and drain cock with hose union on the measured side of the supply. All meters provide an interface, which allows a pulsed output signal to be sent to the Integrated Business Management System (IBMS), installed within the shopping centre. These water meters are being used to correctly apportion each retail outlet's use of water, therefore, each outlet only pays for the water they consume, not a fixed rate. Bluewater, the flagship European property development of international property and financial services group Lend Lease Corporation, is yet another example of Switch2's ability to meet the demands of a large development scheme requiring individual metering, monitoring and recording of water supplies.