Leak delay blamed on traffic

The Hutt City Council and Wellington Water admit they could have done better over a water leak in York Bay.

A resident of the Eastern Bays suburb rang the city council to report a long standing leak.

She was told it had been reported before and had not been fixed because a traffic management plan was required.

That came as a surprise to her as the road is hardly a major thoroughfare.

The Wellington City Council was recently in the news after a Khandallah resident was forced to pay nearly $10,000 to replace a sewer pipe that failed on council land.

A big part of the bill was to cover the cost of a traffic management plan.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester subsequently said he would review the policy it was based on.

Hutt City Council spokeswoman Selena Simcox said the woman who phoned in the leak, should not have been told a traffic management plan was required. That had never been the case and Wellington Water had fixed the leak.

That, however, was not the end of the case. A quick check found there was still a leak.

On Friday, Wellington Water spokesperson Alex van Paassen said the original leak had been fixed. The new leak was probably caused by the pressure in the main not being adjusted and it . was to be fixed on Friday.

He confirmed there had never been any intention to have a traffic management plan.

The area is a quiet one and he said ‘‘ we could probably have done better’’ communicating what was going on.