Newbury Town Council facing larger than normal water bill due to leaky pipes

Council may need to splash out on repairs and lost water due to leaky supply under Victoria Park

NEWBURY Town Council may have to pay thousands of pounds in lost water and repairs owing to leaky pipes under Victoria Park.

The pipes, which have now been replaced, run between the bowls club and kiosk and could set the council back in the region of £6,000 if the leaks are not covered by the council’s insurance.

Service manager Granville Taylor told the : “We’ve had it repaired and the whole service has been replaced.

“The pipe ran underground through electrical cables and wiring so it made sense to replace it rather than dig the whole place up to try to identify where the leak was coming from.

“As far as the insurers are concerned I need to have a chat with them to see if we are covered for the extra water bill and the repairs.”

If the leaks are down to general wear and tear of the supply network then the likelihood is that the council would not be covered for the repair, thought to be in the region of £3,000, or the lost water, also around £3,000, and would have to foot the bill themselves.

The park has also suffered multiple leaks in the supply, owned by Thames Water, who are currently looking at replacing the entire supply between Park Way and St Mary’s Road.

It is unknown if the water leaks have anything to do with subsidence damage in the park and surrounding area.

The damage was noticed shortly after water extraction works were carried out during the development of the Parkway shopping centre’s underground car park in 2010.

The town council launched legal proceedings against Parkway owners Standard Life Investments shortly after the damage appeared and the matter is ongoing.

Chairman of the community services committee Howard Bairstow (Con, Falkland), however, admitted that it was impossible at this moment to link the subsidence and the water leaks.

He said: “It’s still obviously being discussed in all directions – it’s possible but quite honestly we don’t know.”