10:18am Sunday 26th August 2007
By David Connop Price
RESIDENTs have accused water bosses of double standards after waiting five days to have a burst pipe repaired in their street.
When water started pouring out through the pavement in front of Ron Osborne's home in Windermere Avenue, Basingstoke, he contacted South East Water.
Mr Osborne, 71, said: "There's been thousands of gallons of water coming out. It was pumping out fast for five days."
The pensioner then watched sand under his drive being washed away as he waited for repairs to begin.
He added: "They want to fit everyone with water meters but they don't want to fix these leaks."
Neighbour Kate Spencer said: "Five days of pouring water is just ridiculous. They keep banging on about preserving our resources. It's double standards."
Jane Gould, a South East Water press officer, claimed an inspector visited the site the day the leak was reported and arranged for contractors to repair it.
She said: "We endeavour to repair leaks as quickly as possible, but with such an extensive network - 10,000km of water mains with more than 600,000 connections to homes - we have to prioritise our repairs. As such, the leak in Windermere Avenue was repaired within four working days of being reported."
She said one third of all leakage was from customers' private pipes and those leaks often ran for longer than those on the company's pipes.
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