##Severn Trent slammed as leak at Derby house wastes 500,000 litres of water
Sales director Steve said: ‘We’ve always wanted a water feature, but not a river’
By Adam Toms
A Derby man has blasted “incompetent” Severn Trent Water for being too slow to repair an enormous leak from a pipe outside his home that his calculations suggest has wasted around 500,000 litres of water in nearly five weeks.
Upon noticing the flow of water on September 18 outside his home in Paddock Croft, Oakwood, Derby, Steve Hague, 54, an oil and gas pipeline sales director, reported the problem to Severn Trent. Whilst he was away on business in Saudi Arabia between September 19 and October 7, his wife, Cheryl, 36, noticed the problem had worsened considerably.
She then contacted the water company again to ask that it fix the problem as it was “flooding” their garden and flowing all the way down to the end of the cul-de-sac onto the adjoining Chandlers Ford.
In total, the couple say they have received three visits from Severn Trent, with their next-door neighbour also having two, but still a “river” of water constantly flows.
Mr Hague said: “I came back from working overseas and the whole garden was flooded. It got worse on September 22 and so we notified Sever Trent in writing, on email. Yesterday and today have been just talking with them trying to get confirmation about when they are going to come.
“As you can see it’s not small. As a pipeline engineer many years ago, I worked for Severn Trent. But I didn’t deal with this kind of work, this is street work. It’s unbelievable the amount of water coming out during that period of time. It’s probably half a million litres.
“Their response to me has been ‘It’ll get sorted when it gets sorted’, ‘It’s not a priority’. Talking about all this water wastage in the UK, it’s a joke really. We’ve always wanted a water feature but not a river.”
Mr Hague added his neighbour has also contacted the private water firm, with another neighbour also reporting the torrent over several weeks.
Mrs Hague said: “They told me they were waiting for approval from the council, but rest assured it will get sorted. On Friday no one showed up – we’ve been given lip service basically. It’s really ridiculous, their customer service is shocking.”
A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “Our engineers visited Paddock Croft to evaluate a repair on the same day that it was reported to us. Unfortunately, the team that was originally scheduled to conduct this repair were called to an emergency, but this has now been rescheduled for the morning of October 12. We would like to apologise for the delay in getting this repair completed.”
Mr Hague confirmed that the leak had been fixed but he maintained that the whole experience had been a “fiasco”.
Assuming they have a leak target, The CEO should lose the same proportion of shares . Until it’s a personal penalty these firms won’t do anything to improve
Watercompanies ‘Should we fix it? Nah, do a hosepipe ban, got to think of the shareholders. The regulator is toothless anyway, got to think of them.’
> A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “Our engineers visited Paddock Croft to evaluate a repair on the same day that it was reported to us. Unfortunately, the team that was originally scheduled to conduct this repair were called to an emergency, but this has now been rescheduled for the morning of October 12. We would like to apologise for the delay in getting this repair completed.”
How is this not an emergency?!
OK so I know we all like to hate on water companies and there’s plenty they can be criticised for. 500,000 litres lost (if that is anywhere near correct, its the homeowners estimate after all) is about the same as the average consumption of 50-60 households over the same time period for a company with somewhere around 4.6m households being served. In the grand scheme of things that’s a relatively small leak.
They waited for the council’s permission to dig up the road, scheduled the job in once that had been granted, then a higher priority job came in, they rescheduled the job and fixed the leak.
I don’t see what more could have been done and certainly don’t see why this is news worthy?
Guess it’s just as well ST didn’t have a hosepipe ban this year
Wow. In my country, a leak in a freshwater pipe is always considered a contamination source and therefor a high priority issue. Leaving a pipe open for *days* is simply unthinkable!
8 comments
##Severn Trent slammed as leak at Derby house wastes 500,000 litres of water
Sales director Steve said: ‘We’ve always wanted a water feature, but not a river’
By Adam Toms
A Derby man has blasted “incompetent” Severn Trent Water for being too slow to repair an enormous leak from a pipe outside his home that his calculations suggest has wasted around 500,000 litres of water in nearly five weeks.
Upon noticing the flow of water on September 18 outside his home in Paddock Croft, Oakwood, Derby, Steve Hague, 54, an oil and gas pipeline sales director, reported the problem to Severn Trent. Whilst he was away on business in Saudi Arabia between September 19 and October 7, his wife, Cheryl, 36, noticed the problem had worsened considerably.
She then contacted the water company again to ask that it fix the problem as it was “flooding” their garden and flowing all the way down to the end of the cul-de-sac onto the adjoining Chandlers Ford.
In total, the couple say they have received three visits from Severn Trent, with their next-door neighbour also having two, but still a “river” of water constantly flows.
Mr Hague said: “I came back from working overseas and the whole garden was flooded. It got worse on September 22 and so we notified Sever Trent in writing, on email. Yesterday and today have been just talking with them trying to get confirmation about when they are going to come.
“As you can see it’s not small. As a pipeline engineer many years ago, I worked for Severn Trent. But I didn’t deal with this kind of work, this is street work. It’s unbelievable the amount of water coming out during that period of time. It’s probably half a million litres.
“Their response to me has been ‘It’ll get sorted when it gets sorted’, ‘It’s not a priority’. Talking about all this water wastage in the UK, it’s a joke really. We’ve always wanted a water feature but not a river.”
Mr Hague added his neighbour has also contacted the private water firm, with another neighbour also reporting the torrent over several weeks.
Mrs Hague said: “They told me they were waiting for approval from the council, but rest assured it will get sorted. On Friday no one showed up – we’ve been given lip service basically. It’s really ridiculous, their customer service is shocking.”
A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “Our engineers visited Paddock Croft to evaluate a repair on the same day that it was reported to us. Unfortunately, the team that was originally scheduled to conduct this repair were called to an emergency, but this has now been rescheduled for the morning of October 12. We would like to apologise for the delay in getting this repair completed.”
Mr Hague confirmed that the leak had been fixed but he maintained that the whole experience had been a “fiasco”.
Severn Trent responded as [thus](https://youtu.be/2Gn9A-kdsRo) and for the younger neighbours also impacted as [yeah we is soz](https://youtu.be/DksSPZTZES0)
Assuming they have a leak target, The CEO should lose the same proportion of shares . Until it’s a personal penalty these firms won’t do anything to improve
Watercompanies ‘Should we fix it? Nah, do a hosepipe ban, got to think of the shareholders. The regulator is toothless anyway, got to think of them.’
> A Severn Trent spokesperson said: “Our engineers visited Paddock Croft to evaluate a repair on the same day that it was reported to us. Unfortunately, the team that was originally scheduled to conduct this repair were called to an emergency, but this has now been rescheduled for the morning of October 12. We would like to apologise for the delay in getting this repair completed.”
How is this not an emergency?!
OK so I know we all like to hate on water companies and there’s plenty they can be criticised for. 500,000 litres lost (if that is anywhere near correct, its the homeowners estimate after all) is about the same as the average consumption of 50-60 households over the same time period for a company with somewhere around 4.6m households being served. In the grand scheme of things that’s a relatively small leak.
They waited for the council’s permission to dig up the road, scheduled the job in once that had been granted, then a higher priority job came in, they rescheduled the job and fixed the leak.
I don’t see what more could have been done and certainly don’t see why this is news worthy?
Guess it’s just as well ST didn’t have a hosepipe ban this year
Wow. In my country, a leak in a freshwater pipe is always considered a contamination source and therefor a high priority issue. Leaving a pipe open for *days* is simply unthinkable!