Elderly couple left high and dry in four day drought

Brian West, aged 78, who suffers with asbestosis and his wife Josie, aged 75, who has type two diabetes, first noticed their water had stopped on Monday morning.
The couple said it is a common occurrence, living in Briff Lane in Upper Bucklebury, but became concerned when they woke on Tuesday to find the problems continuing.
Mr West reported the problem to Thames Water and was assured someone would visit the property as soon as possible - however they failed to show.
Disgruntled, the couples’ daughter, Tracey Choules, called Thames Water on Wednesday, concerned for her parents welfare.
They were assured that an engineer would be on site by 4pm, but by 5:30pm the firm had failed to show. This process was repeated several times until a workman finally arrived shortly before 9pm.
To add to the couple’s woes, bottles of drinking water were not offered by the firm until the following day - three days after the problem was reported.
“There’s no communication from them whatsoever,” said Mrs Choules. “It’s just appalling. These are elderly people here.”
Suffering with asbestosis, a severe lung disease, means Mr West is connected to an oxygen machine 24-hours a day and virtually unable to leave the house. It has left simple tasks such as opening the front door or answering the telephone a difficulty, yet for four days the couple have been resorted to lifting buckets with water to allow them to flush the toilet.
“They haven’t treated this as an emergency,” said Mrs Choules. “We cannot physically move my father because he’s on oxygen 24 hours a day. Moving him about is not an option.
“It’s not acceptable and they don’t seem to care.”
The distressed couple were finally connected to a temporary supply of water on Thursday evening while engineers tore up their patio in an attempt to get to the route of the problem.
A spokeswoman for Thames Water, Natalie Slater, said: “We believe it to be a leak on the customer's private pipe so we are helping to repair this for him.
"We cannot apologise enough for the appalling service we have given Mr West. We can and must do better in future."
Customer service manager for Thames Water, Paul Day, is negotiating compensation with the couple.