Water firm criticised over supply issue response

Villagers who have been without water for more than 44 hours have criticised their supplier's response.

Thorpe Mandeville, Culworth, Lower Boddington and Eydon in Northamptonshire have been without water since 19:00 BST on Monday, while supplies have also been disrupted in Woburn and Brogborough in Bedfordshire.

Thorpe Mandeville Parish Council chairman Doug Brown says Anglian Water has kept pushing back the estimated time for resolving the issue, and has called on the firm to deliver bottled water.

The company said that the Northamptonshire issue was due to a fault at a pumping station.

It said that the Bedfordshire problem was due to an airlock in the system which appeared after the pumps were restarted.

The firm added it was working to resolve the supply issues and would keep residents informed by text and email, as well as through updates on its website.

In a statement it said: "Our teams are working hard on-site to get things back to normal as quickly as we can".

Speaking to BBC Radio Northampton, parish councillor Brown said: "We've got nothing at all. Our village is completely off."

"It's a pump issue, so high-up villages are more affected and we're at the top of the hill. It may be some of the villages down in the valley are getting a trickle, but we're getting nothing whatsoever."

Brown said Anglian Water had promised to deliver bottled water to vulnerable customers registered on its database, but he had "not seen a delivery of anything around the village as yet".

However, in a comment to the BBC Anglian Water said the distribution of bottled water was in progress.

He added that the situation was also worrying for local farmers and their livestock who are also without water.

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