History

The roots of LSTC can be traced back over five decades. Line Surveys was formed in 1954 by Mr L B Cook who operated from rural East Yorkshire employing a small number of staff working throughout the UK.

Line Surveys under Len Cook used what is now considered to be traditional methods of surveying, all drawing work being undertaken by hand, calculations being done long-hand, and surveying done with a dumpy level, chain, theodolite and staff – all results manually recorded in a level book.

In 1988 Nick Minns and Martin Straker bought the business, both had been employees for the previous 14 and 9 years respectively, from the then retiring Mr L B Cook.

During this time, they had gained valuable knowledge of how the business ran and how best to serve its nationwide client portfolio.

At this point Line Surveys was taken from being a “traditional” survey company to one capturing all survey information by means of field computers and processing done through Optimal Software within a space of three years.

This gigantic leap forward enabled survey work to be processed more efficiently and enabled Line Surveys to develop its workforce from the initial four in 1988 to fifteen in 2001.

From July 2001 LSTC worked alongside Line Surveys to provide engineering consultancy services.

Peter Papanastasiou (left) who had previously worked for Balfour Beatty, Clough Smith and Interserve was appointed as a co-director along with Nick (centre) and Martin (right).

With Peter’s wealth of knowledge and experience, the aim of this new company was to take the expertise provided by Line Surveys to a new level in providing engineering and design consultancy services to the UK Power and Railway Industries.

The two companies were merged in 2004 and successfully grew to 60 employees.

LSTC has since acquired a cable route design company and an earthing company, Earthing Risk Management (ERM), and now has over 100 employees sharing knowledge and expertise, benefiting clients.