Without water for days

Dec 31 2010 by Iain Howie, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

Without water for days

A PERTH mum-of-one has spent nearly two weeks without any household water supplies.

And despite repeated calls to her council landlords and Scottish Water, Wendy Young claimed yesterday that little has been done to resolve the matter, with plumbers left scratching their heads to find the site of the cut-off.

Ms Young, who lives at West Mill Street with her teenage daughter, first noticed there was a problem on the Sunday before Christmas and quickly called around in a bid to get it sorted.

She checked with neighbours, including a lone pensioner, to see if they were also affected, and found that some on another water connection still had supplies.

In total, four out of six homes in the block of flats have been affected.

She first contacted the PA last week when several homes and businesses were hit by frozen pipes, leaking valves and the mains bursts in several parts of Perth.

She said: “There were lots of problems and I have been checking the Scottish Water website to see if there was anything local to me, but they’ve all been dealt with and I am still without water.

“Christmas was fairly miserable because we didn’t have water. I was concerned about leaving the house in case we returned to find a pipe had burst inside.

“We’ve been living off bottled water – but that’s quite expensive and inconvenient compared with having it on tap.

“We should’ve been given help long before now, perhaps getting bottled water. But we’ve not received any update or information from whoever’s leading this.

“It’s come to the point that some in the block have been told not to flush their toilets.

“I have contacted the council lots of times, every day since it happened. But every time I call it’s like it’s a fresh inquiry – it’s like there’s no record of my previous call, so we’re back at square one all the time.

“A plumber, I think from the council, called but then left without letting us know what was happening, so we’re all in limbo.”

Ms Young added that a similar cut-off had hit the block earlier in December, as well as around a year ago.

“When it happened last year we were told that the pipes – which are boxed outside – would be lagged to prevent them freezing.

“I don’t know if that was carried out, but the same has happened all over again.”

The PA contacted Perth and Kinross Council last week about the problem, but we were told it was believed to be a Scottish Water matter.

We also contacted Scottish Water to clarify who was overseeing the repair effort and the firm insisted that responsibility lies with PKC.

As the PA went to press Ms Young said that joiners and plumbers were expected to visit her home yesterday to investigate the water problem.