Water boss blames developer for burst that left 20,000 Flintshire homes dry
Plaid Cymru’s North Wales Senedd Member has questioned whether a developer’s actions were at the heart of the major Flintshire water outage that left more than 20,000 homes without supply during the summer.
Llyr Gruffydd MS raised the issue during a Senedd scrutiny session of the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, which he chairs, following evidence from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water chief executive Peter Perry.
The meeting heard from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s chief executive, Peter Perry.
Mr Perry revealed that the company paid out £3.5 million in compensation to residents and businesses following the burst to a major pipe at Bretton near Broughton in August.
The failure left around 20,600 homes and 1,000 businesses without water across Flintshire, including communities in Flint, Holywell, Greenfield, Llanerch y Mor, Mostyn, Oakenholt, Talacre, Whitford, Queensferry, Shotton, Connah’s Quay, Garden City, Hawarden, Mancot and Sandycroft, with Ffynnongroyw being particularly hard hit.
Mr Perry told the committee: “We risk assess our assets. So we try to target investment where the need is greatest. The incident at Bretton didn’t appear on our top 20 of risk.
“Bretton had a couple of circumstances and had no burst history in the past 15 years. The main failed on a joint that had held well for 30 years but not to the standard we would expect today. The ground level on that main caused that burst – that had been increased by a local developer. We normally have 2m above our mains and anything over that adds stress to the pipeline. This had been increased to 5m. So one of the things we have learned there is more liaison with developers to make sure ground levels do not increase.”
Mr Gruffydd asked: “So you were not aware of the raised height and nothing in the planning system had taken account of this?”
Mr Perry conceded: “We could have done it better and we have tightened our processes because that should have rung alarm bells.”
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Gruffydd said: “The extent of the outage right up the Dee estuary was substantial and it’s important that residents and businesses have been compensated promptly.
“My biggest concern from this scrutiny however was that a developer was able to raise the ground level above this mains pipe to 5m without notifying Dŵr Cymru and this, from what Mr Perry has told us, was responsible for the mains burst. That’s hugely concerning – a developer’s actions appear to have caused this outage without any notification to either Dŵr Cymru or the local council.
“Was this water cut avoidable? I want to know how this situation could have arisen and how we can ensure it never happens again.”
Check live fuel prices near you before you set off.
Spotted something? Got a story? Email news (@) deeside.com
NEW: Add Deeside.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Latest News
