ANGLIAN Water has defended a decision to take several weeks to repair a leak which has pumped out “thousands of gallons” of water in front of houses.The water has been overflowing in Hocket Crescent, Tunstall, near Woodbridge, since last month and was due to be fixed last night or today following intervention by the EADT.

By Richard Smith

ANGLIAN Water has defended a decision to take several weeks to repair a leak which has pumped out “thousands of gallons” of water in front of houses.

The water has been overflowing in Hocket Crescent, Tunstall, near Woodbridge, since last month and was due to be fixed last night or today following intervention by the EADT.

Graham Jay, 52, of Hocket Crescent, said: “I think this is utterly disgusting. You read that we should be conserving water and how, in other parts of the country, they are told not to use water to wash cars, and then here you have this mess.

“The water is several inches deep and thousands of gallons have been wasted. This was reported to Anglian Water three to four weeks ago and they have known about it that long.

“But they are just not doing anything about it. The water is getting worse and worse, it is coming up from everywhere, and Anglian Water has not given any reasons to us.

“A chap came out in a water board van last Monday to look at it. I asked him how long it would be before it was done, and he said he would put it on the 'urgent' list.”

A spokesman for the water company said: “Anglian Water is aware of the leak. This has been classified as non-urgent. Within current levels of service, our contractors have to have fixed it by June 20.

“The burst appeared more serious than it actually was, due to a blocked drain. We are investigating the cause of this.

“We appreciate that residents in Tunstall may feel we should have got out more quickly to fix this particular leak, but would like to assure them that our response is appropriate to the scale of the burst.”

He added: “Anglian Water carefully prioritises all leaks, attending major bursts and incidents which threaten to disrupt customer water supplies with greater urgency. This has helped us to achieve one of the lowest levels of water lost through leakage of all UK water companies.

“The fact that Anglian Water has not placed any restrictions such as hosepipe bans on customers since 1991 and has no plans to do so this year, is thanks largely to our careful management of leakage.

“We do appreciate the vigilance of customers in reporting leaks and thank them for their co-operation. Customers calling us about leaks help us to successfully manage our 37,000 km of water pipes.”

According to latest figures, Anglian Water wastes 80 millions of gallons every day in East Anglia.

>