Water company slammed for leaks during drought

Water leaks going on for more than four weeks in Louth during the heatwave has sparked criticism from locals.
The water leak on Northgate in Louth.The water leak on Northgate in Louth.
The water leak on Northgate in Louth.

A number of water leaks in the town centre from water metre covers, located outside the Town Hall, on Northgate, New Street, Market Place and at the crossroads at the bottom of Cannon Street, have been going on for some time and left residents concerned – especially as the country was in a drought not so long ago.

Rev. Julie Oddy-Bates said: “They have been going on for over four weeks now and must have wasted thousand of litres of water each day. It s truly unacceptable when we are facing the driest summer on record and really needs investigating.”

As of today (Friday), it has been reported that the Cannon Street and Market PLace leaks have been mended.

The leak on New Street.The leak on New Street.
The leak on New Street.

An Anglian Water spokesman said: “We are aware of leaks in Louth and Horncastle. Our teams have attended these sites and they will be repaired as soon as possible.

"Luckily these leaks are not affecting customer supplies, although we may need to put traffic management in place to keep our team and other road users safe while we fix them.

“While we appreciate that leakage is something that no one wants, particularly at the moment, hot weather makes burst water mains more frequent, and we’re prioritising fixing leaks that are impacting customers’ water supply.

"Our teams at Anglian Water are working really hard to reduce the number of leaks in our network.

"Our leakages rates per kilometre of water main are half the industry average, despite having the biggest geographical region of any water company."