Thames Water has come under fire for delays in repairing a burst water main, which plunged a South London town centre into ‘chaos’.
The major leak on Wandsworth High Street was first reported to the company on October 20.
Emergency works to fix the leaking mains pipe under the high street were due to finish on November 8, but overran by another week after engineers discovered further leaks. Thames Water shut two lanes on the high street for the works, leading to heavy congestion throughout Wandsworth, while some households were left with no water at peak times.
Wandsworth Council slammed Thames Water’s ‘unacceptable’ delays in completing the repairs for causing further ‘traffic chaos’ and misery for residents with an interrupted water supply. The authority called on the company to offer maximum compensation to affected households.
Thames Water apologised for the disruption caused by the works. The company told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) it completed the repairs on November 11, after working 24 hours a day since October 20, and residents’ water supply should now be fully restored. It is finishing the roadworks and expects to remove the remaining lane closure by November 15.
Businesses on the high street said the congestion had been a ‘nightmare’ and put customers off from visiting the shops. “I’ve been here for 53 years and it’s the worst it’s ever been,” Mick Belton, 72, told the LDRS.
Mr Belton, who runs Belton and Slade, said: “I think anything like that, it puts people off coming out unless they’ve got to.”
He added: “People use all the back roads to try and miss it, but it just gets clogged up everywhere.”
Suresh Bali, 57, who works at Bargain Store, described travelling to Wandsworth from Barking as a ‘nightmare’ due to the works. He had been getting off the bus early to avoid waiting in gridlocked traffic.
“I try to get out at Wandsworth Town Hall and leg it from there if I am coming by bus,” Mr Bali added.
Labour council leader Simon Hogg said residents and businesses were ‘rightly angry’ about the delays, given their serious impact on the local economy and community. He added Thames Water’s communication with the council and public fell below the standards he would expect.
In an open letter to Thames Water on November 8, Councillor Hogg wrote: “We also want to see comprehensive support for the homes and businesses that have been affected, and an improved offer of compensation for those residents facing the misery of persistent water supply issues.
“It is unacceptable that our residents are having to cope with low or no water pressure in their homes and rely on bottled water deliveries. We do not feel that the offer of up to £60 per day is adequate given how long local people have suffered, and we want this support provided proactively, without residents needing to apply.”
Putney MP Fleur Anderson said the works had left some residents in SW11, SW15 and SW18 with no water, or intermittent water, at peak times. The Labour MP said this hit disabled and elderly residents particularly hard, as she urged Thames Water to update residents on compensation they could claim for the disruption.
Ms Anderson added: “Looking at the broader picture, investment in our water infrastructure is critical. The state of our pipes, sewers and general infrastructure is shocking after decades of neglect and underinvestment. I am pleased to see how seriously our new Labour government is taking this task, with long overdue investment and prioritisation of our waters.”
The council previously revealed it fined Thames Water more than £500,000 from April 2022 to mid-July this year for completing roadworks late. It said the frequency of overrunning roadworks was ’cause for concern’, after more than 320 roadworks in this timeframe took longer than the agreed deadline.
A Thames Water spokesperson told the LDRS it remained in close contact with Wandsworth and Richmond councils while repairing the burst mains pipe and minimised disruption. They said the company posted updates online about the works and delivered more than 500 letters to local businesses.
The spokesperson added: “This was a complex repair which required us to fix a large leak on a 36-inch water mains pipe, which ran next to a gas mains pipe and other utilities. As health and safety is our top priority, it was important we carried out the repairs safely.
“However, while carrying out this repair our engineers located further leaks along the mains pipes. Unfortunately, this extended the amount of time that we remained on site as we needed to repair these leaks.
“Throughout this incident we put a number of measures in place to keep the taps flowing for our customers, diverting water from other parts of our network into the local pipes, and bringing over 10 tankers into the area to pump additional water into the system.
“We know works of this scale can be disruptive for the local community, whether that’s due to additional traffic or for those who experienced lower water pressure. We are very sorry to local people who have been impacted and would like to thank them for their ongoing patience.”
