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Families left dry as pipes burst
BURST pipes left scores of families without running water
at the weekend and sparked a furious ‘blame game’
row between the leader of Camden Council and providers Thames
Water.
The cut-off was caused by three separate bursts on Friday and
affected supply to several council blocks in Gospel Oak including
the Bacton and Wendling in Haverstock Road.
Emergency bottled water disappeared quickly and many residents
were left without any alternative supplies.
Thames Water said they ran into problems as they worked on improving
pressure in the area on Friday.
But the company yesterday (Wednesday) said that the blame for
the gap in service should also be shouldered by the council.
A spokeswoman said that the pumps used in council estates had
automatically switched themselves off and were not turned back
on by the estate managers until late on Saturday.
She added: “We accept that we have a case to answer. There
were three bursts and there was a delay to repairs. But we are
not accepting all of the responsibility. The council’s
pumps were not switched back on.”
The defence came after Labour council leader Councillor Raj
Chada fired off an angry letter to Thames Water managers.
Cllr Chada said: “I am writing to you to express my outrage
regarding the disruption of water supply to residential areas
in areas such as Bacton, Wendling and Kiln Place over the weekend.
The water went off, without warning sometime on Friday evening
and for many residents did not come back on again until Sunday.”
He added: “This has caused huge inconvenience, particularly
for our elderly residents and is unacceptable. I would ask that
you investigate this immediately and put in place measures to
prevent such disruption. Should it occur again, I would ask
that you consider a better way of distributing the emergency
bottles of water, possibly by having a system where they can
be given to individual tenants.”
Thames Water said they had supplied 1,000 bottles of water but
some people took more than they needed and reserves soon ran
low. |
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