UNITED UTILITIES UPDATE

The Chair welcomed Gaynor Kenyon, Scott Bear and Simon Chadwick from United Utilities to the forum, to give a presentation on the recent water problems in the Moreton / Wallasey area.

Scott Bear started the presentation by thanking the forum for giving United Utilities this opportunity to attend and explain the issues which have arisen during recent weeks. Scott apologised for the inconvenience caused and explained that there were 3 incidents which lead to the problems in Wirral but that they were still conducting ongoing investigations.

The first issue involved the planned work in Reeds Lane on 20^th-21^st May to fix a 21inch leak in the water main, which all 11,500 residents affected were notified in writing in advance of the work commencing. Scott explained that when the excavation began the scale of the leak was more than they had originally anticipated and that normally they would abort the job at that point. The split in the pipe was getting worse and at this point they had no choice but to continue the work. They admit that residents were not notified of this extension to the repair work but this was because they were still confident that they would have the leak repaired by 6am. At 4am they realised it was going to take longer than expected but that most residents were restored to the water supply by 12pm. United Utilities was liaising with the local media all morning to inform residents of their return to the water supply and were confident that everything was back to normal.

On the Friday afternoon some residents were still reporting no water or low pressure in the Wallasey / Liscard area. United Utilities did not know why this was as all computer reports were showing that the pipe in Reeds Lane was fully repaired. United Utilities then decided to retrace the problem back along the water supply and found another isolated incident by the M53 which was a broken 36inch water valve.

United Utilities found it very difficult to fix this problem quickly as there were several overhead electricity cables directly above the ground where the valve was and this meant they had to Liaise with the electricity company to ensure there was no power around when excavation and repair began, as the valve was 36inchs long the excavation for this repair was huge. Scott showed some photos in the presentation which highlighted the scale of the challenge faced by the company. The repair on the valve took one week in which time was the hottest weekend of the year so far. This caused more problems as the levels of water in the reservoir dropped. This meant that water pressure was low and affected all of the North East of the Wirral for the whole of Sunday. United Utilities continued to monitor this situation and dispatched water bottles to residents. The normal procedure would have been to pump water straight into the mains but due to the broken valve this could not happen. This repair work was a hugely complex procedure for United Utilities and they did try to communicate with residents but they acknowledge they could have done more.

Investigations have shown that the valve which caused the majority of problems was installed 30 years ago and it had a defect which meant instead of moving in a circular motion to let water pass it had become stuck. Now United Utilities will be checking the area to ensure any other valves which were installed at the same time do not contain the same defects.

The forum then asked United Utilities the following questions:

Member of the public: Will residents be given compensation and how much?

United Utilities: Yes compensation will be given to those affected; the amount will be determined by the scale of problems each individual household experienced as some residents were back to the water supply sooner than others. Customers who are in credit on their bill will receive a cheque and those who are in arrears on their bill will receive credit on their bill. Letters have been sent out to all affected households and residents should expect to receive them next week. If anyone wishes to dispute the level of compensation given they may appeal by contacting United Utilities directly.

Member of the public: Informed the forum that she was one of those affected by the water problems and that she had no notification from United Utilities that any work was being carried out.

United Utilities: We apologise for this however letters were distributed to 11,500 households and unfortunately sometimes letters can get mixed up between newspapers and junk mail. This feedback will be taken back to the relevant department within the company and United Utilities are open to other forms of communication if any resident have suggestions of how this can be done better.

Member of the Public: Has Reeds Lane opened yet?

United Utilities: Yes Reeds Lane is now fully open and operating as normal.

Jane McLear: What did United Utilities do to ensure that vulnerable groups such as the elderly were not as affected by the problems as a lot of older people in her area were not notified and did not know what to do when the problems occurred? Also small businesses in the area were not able to operate and have therefore lost money due to these problems.

United Utilities: Simon Bear explained that all residents should have been notified but understands there seems to have been some error after hearing of people’s experiences in the area. The bottled water given out to residents at the stage when United Utilities knew they would not be able to fix the problem for the hot weekend was given to vulnerable groups first but United Utilities admit they need to get better at identifying where the most vulnerable people live.

Carolyn Curr suggested that United Utilities link up to the council’s and NHS vulnerable people database and ensure that both lists within United Utilities and the council match to ensure a coherent response to this type of situation should it ever happen again.

Cllr Ian Lewis also agreed with this action as he was concerned about the shortage of a comprehensive vulnerable people list within United Utilities.

Simon bear also explained that any businesses who feel they have lost out due on income due to these problems can apply for compensation by writing to United Utilities and listing the details of how they were affected.

Minute decision: Resolved that United Utilities be thanked for attending and if anyone has any questions there are forms which can be filled in at the back of the room.