Apology over leak road repair delays
UNITED Utilities has apologised for taking two months to fix a badly collapsed road after wrongly denying responsibility for it.
A water leak on Reservoir Road, Edgeley, caused the carriageway to collapse on June 27 last year - leaving residents struggling to get their cars out and bin men unable to make collections.
But it was not fixed until September after United Utilities investigated, claimed it was not a leak and therefore not their responsibility, and then left it.
Tom Hayes, from the organisation, was summoned to a central area committee meeting and admitted the mistake. He said a staff member had since been reprimanded.
The water services manager said: “It was reported and a team member went to assess, the original assessment was it was not a leak.
“It is disappointing, I would expect us to take responsibility, I have since had a conversation with the individual.
“We should have investigated more, it is a performance issue that I have addressed. He didn’t report it back.
“It was very, very poor in terms of investigation, feedback and time to repair. We hold our hands up.”
United Utilities had been asked to explain themselves at the previous month’s central area committee.
But they were branded ‘timewasters’ when they sent staff from the wrong department who were unable to answer any questions. Here it was said the organisation had twice wrongly denied responsibility, then claimed it had been fixed when it had not.
The meeting heard that the leak was from main pipe that serviced significant parts of the Edgeley area.
This meant that the planning was more complicated, involving mobile water tanks to keep the supply going to homes while repairs were carried out.
Before the meeting one of the affected residents in the area, Colette Hounslow, said: “It was joke. We had to drive on the pavement. It’s dangerous and damaged the kerbs.
“For the first couple of weeks the bins were not emptied, which is bad especially in summer.”
Councillor Philip Harding said: “I am glad you have admitted it is a United Utilities error and some action has been taken.
“I do hope there will be no repetition.”