MP calls for South West Water Chief Executive to address locals’ concerns about frequent water outages 

Following a public meeting at the Engine Inn, Cripplesease, on Friday 10th July, about the recent water outages and loss of pressure in the Nancledra, Towednack, Halsetown, Cripplesease and surrounding areas, attended by South West Water managers, Andrew George MP has made the following statement on his social media accounts. 

“Most of us take the reliability of water supply for granted. But there are many places where households and businesses endure the problems of regularly losing their supply or have such low pressure it would take hours to fill a bath, by which time it would be cold.  

“Residents in west Cornwall who have suffered the disruption and uncertainty of a completely unacceptable and unreliable water supply gathered at a meeting I called the weekend to hear from officials from South West Water (SWW). We met at ‘epicentre’ of the numerous outages which customers experience each month, The Engine Inn at Cripplesease.  

“The only problem was that the officials sent were local technicians who were able to describe the problems they had to deal with and a public relations guy who was presumably there to do what public relations guys do – use the best language and artifice of sympathy to place a gloss over a shamefully inadequate service. 

“Some reported over 150 occasions when they’ve lost water; being without water for 4 days, sometimes longer; a business with over 300 guests without water – unable to shower or flush a loo – during a recent busy and very hot bank holiday weekend; a school head who has had to take the precautionary measure of arriving at the school before 6am each morning in case the water supply has again failed and the school has to be closed or alternative arrangements made. One business explained to me that they pay SWW over £5,000 per annum for a service which they don’t get and will withhold payments until they do.  

“None criticised the frontline SWW staff who were always polite and sympathetic when telephoned, nor the service engineers who attended the meeting to explain how the system is supposed to work and how difficult it is with the capacity they have to work with.  

“People came from Nancledra, Towednack, Georgia, Carbis Bay, Halsetown, Castle Gate and surrounding areas. We learned that these places were all served from the Steeple pumping station which clearly has capacity problems. 

“Those who’ve experienced continuous outages have sometimes been offered derisory compensation. 

It was a packed meeting. We were polite and grateful to the SWW staff who attended, but I assured those who attended that we’d need to review the situation after the summer season and that next time we need the SWW Chief Exec and/or senior exec who can address the investment questions which could not be answered.  

“Thank you to the many who came and spoke about their experiences, and to Engine Inn proprietors Claire and Darren Biggs for hosting us.”