Towards the end of the decade, Staff from ARM visited the Ford factory at Basildon many times during the development, testing and manufacture and supply of hitches to be fitted by the Ford Tractor Company.
ARM and Birmingham University personnel became aware of another method of reed bed operation, namely vertical downflow which had been developed in Germany and which was deemed to effect much greater oxygen transfer and hence contaminant removal than horizontal flow. ARM decided to construct downflow reed beds upstream of the reed beds at Rugeley and Drointon. These improved the performance considerably. The two systems were trailed and monitored by the ADAS and a series of four graduates from the School of Civil Engineering of Birmingham University University used these facilities to achieve PhD’s.