Water firm blasted for leak delay
RETIRED couple Brian and Dorothy Hibbert have criticised water company Severn Trent for the amount of time it took to fix a leak in their street.
They claim thousands of gallons of water must have been lost when water gushed down Boardmans Bank, in Brown Edge, yesterday.
Mr Hibbert called the firm, which supplies thousands of homes in North Staffordshire, at 10.15am after he went to turn the water off in the road and the top of the tap snapped off.
He had been trying to turn the water off to stop a leak in his kitchen.
Severn Trent arrived and fixed the leak just before 5pm. The company has now issued an apology for any inconvenience caused.
Mr Hibbert said: "It was like a big fountain in the street. I rang Severn Trent more than once but it took almost all day for them to come out. Water was gushing down the street. It was like a river.
"I wouldn't like to reckon up how many thousands of gallons of water were wasted. After all the fines Severn Trent have had in the past I would have thought they'd want to sort it quickly, but it was nearly 5pm by the time they came to fix it."
His wife, also aged 60, said: "I was out shopping when it happened, but when I came back and turned into our lane, all I could see was water.
"The lane was absolutely drenched all day. There was no water for us in the house.
"We felt really helpless because we could see all the water going to waste and couldn't stop it."
In July, Severn Trent was fined £2 million for lying about leaks.
The firm reported an estimated annual water loss of 340 million litres per day to meet targets, while the true figure was around 514 million litres. It decided to accept the fine and not appeal.
A company spokesman said: "We received our first customer call on the leak in Boardmans Bank at 10.50am, later attending and completing the repair at 5.30pm.
"We made the repair, to a leak on an external stop-tap, very quickly following our contractor's arrival.
"Unfortunately, we were not able to resource a repair team any earlier.
"We are sorry for any inconvenience caused to customers by the leak. No customer likes to see water running down the street, and neither does Severn Trent."
2 Comments
by Anon, Mow Cop
Thursday, August 28 2008, 11:30AM
“Severn-Trent must be one of the worst run water companies in England.A water leak like this in Arizona would attract a hefty fine from the state "water police" for allowing this volume of water to escape down the road. Water prices should be linked to the amount of leakage, so that the long term cost does not go onto customers bills, and the company pays for its own ineptitude.”
by Kevin Raftery, Stoke
Thursday, August 28 2008, 10:10AM
“Severn Trent fined £2 million for lying about leaks; they will be telling us next that the consumer is not going to pay it. Yes, the water companies have jumped on the bandwagon so expect a big price hike from these twisters. And no, they cannot espouse what British Gas mitigate as in stock depletion and the water costing more to acquire. It falls naturally from the sky (around these parts in buckets).”