Winter Cottage, Goongumpas, Redruth,Cornwall TR16 5JL
Tracy
Symons
South
West Water
20
December 2016
Dear
Tracy.
In
our phone call on Wednesday 7 December I told you that I am in the
process of writing a reply to your
25
November 2016 letter
(copy attached) and guessed (wrongly!) that it would be about a
week before it is ready for publication. I offered you a chance to
discuss it at a meeting or over the phone before publicizing it
but you declined.
As I
said there is a great deal in your letter that I disagree with and
I think I can prove most, if not all, of your arguments to be
nonsense and there are a couple of parts of your letter that I
take exception to.
Your
main argument is that that the pipe after the Tailings End stop
tap / meter enters private land at Five Acres and continues across
about five different private properties before arriving at ours
about half a mile away which would mean it is a private pipe all
the way from Tailings End to our properties. Although you state in
your letter that “We do not know
the exact path of your private pipe” you were adamant,
in our phone call, that you did know it enters private land
immediately after the Tailings End meter near the notice. You may
of course be correct but please explain how you came to this
conclusion? Have SWW dug up the lane to check? (it doesn’t look
like anybody has as of 19 December 2016 17:00) or is it just
guesswork? We confirm we have not dug up the lane to check but
believe the pipe continues down the lane towards Goon Farm and
enters private land at Goon Farm and thus the pipe in the lane,
which was laid before 1 September 1989, is a communication pipe
and SWW’s responsibility. We base this view on the following facts
-
1.
Kevin Bray (SWW) told us that the
pipe continues down the lane towards Goon Farm when he installed
the stop tap and meter in late 2013 (at our request) and a logging
meter in February 2014 (again at our request). He re-installed a
standard meter on 23 January 2015 (once more at our request) so
that we could monitor the usage and try and find/repair the
alleged leak that SWW had said they had “found” a year (and
five million litres of water wasted) previously.
2.
Mike Shannon (SWW) told Mr Bellward
and I (at our 4 March 2016 meeting) that the pipe continues down
the lane and is a communication pipe until it reaches the entrance
to Harmony Cottage where it enters a different lane leading to
Goon Farm and ceases to be a communication pipe at that point. As
you know we disagree that it is a different lane and have provided
proof.
3.
The meter at the bottom of the
chamber is aligned with the road and not at right angles to it.
4.
According to a SWW officer Tailings
End reported their outside tap was connected to the pipe beyond
the meter and it seems very unlikely the connection would be
across the lane on private land rather than in the lane.
5.
The 1970 deeds of Winter Cottage
include a
map
that shows the pipe to be in the lane from Tailings End until it
enters Goon Farm land. For the part that crosses Goon Farm there
is an easement in the deeds to repair or replace that part of the
pipe. There is obviously not an easement to repair or replace the
pipe in the lane as it is a communication pipe in a highway laid
before 1 September 1989 and SWW’s responsibility.
We
sent a copy of this map and easement to various SWW employees and
others several times. The first time as an attachment to our
4
March 2013 (11:55) email to Allister Symonds
which was sent soon after we discovered these documents in the
deeds. It is apparent from your
letter that you have not seen this email since you state in
your letter “We do not know the
exact path of your private pipe” (the deeds map shows
the exact path of the pipe and which parts are private and which
parts are not) and later you say the “first
record SWW have of our complaint was 29 August 2013”
which is of course about 6 months after our
4
March 2013 email
proving you have not seen it. A map of the area and the “the
exact path” of the pipe is also shown on the web site
www.goongumpas.com
which I understand SWW has looked at many times (the last logged
visit being on 19 December 2016 at 11:57
see
attached log of the last 10 months for one of the SWW users).
Incidentally I do not have a copy of the 29 August 2013
communication you mention which could be because it was lost in
one of our many computer crashes experienced between late 2015 and
June 2016 or it could be that you are mistaken. Please email me a
copy.
I
attach a copy of your document Water
service pipe responsibilities (water industry Act 1991)
which can also be viewed here
https://www.southwestwater.co.uk/media/pdf/f/k/SPIv3_0914.pdf
·
What
you are saying is Fig 2 (alternative scenario) applies.
·
What
we are saying is Fig 2 (communication pipe in road) applies.
·
What
Mr Shannon is saying is Fig 3 (property fronting a street where
there is no main) applies.
·
What
Mr Bray said was the pipe is in the road but it is a private pipe.
Maybe he was not aware that this pipe was laid prior to 1st
September 1989.
In
your
25
November 2016 letter
(attached) you say it is not normal
practice to install meters where SWW installed ours (adjacent to
our properties rather than near your main half a mile away).
However you did the same on Goon Farm (despite your letter stating
you know their supply comes from Tailings End). For Harmony
Cottage you installed their first meter on Goon Farm’s land (next
to Goon Farm’s own meter apparently) so it would appear that it
is the normal practice in this area. We believe this practice
is the primary cause of all the trouble and expense we, Carn View
/ Harmony Cottage and indeed SWW have had. SWW installed all these
meters without first testing the quality of the water
or the integrity of the pipe
leading to them. The water could have come from anywhere!
In our case SWW knew our water came from the Tailings End main (we
didn’t because we had not seen the Winter Cottage deeds at the
time). If SWW had spent a couple of
hours installing a stop tap and meter on “our” pipe at Tailings
End before installing our meters then hundreds of thousands
of pounds as well as millions of litres of water would have been
saved because the leak and the other connected users (Goon Farm’s
troughs, Carn View, Harmony Cottage, Carn View’s trough on Mr
Lanyon’s land, the stand pipe on the land Goon Farm had for sale
(sold in 2014 and now known as The Cabin), Five Acres , Tailings
End’s outside tap and Iona Cottage’s caravan yard. Would have
been found and dealt with eight+
years ago and we, Carn View and Harmony Cottage would not
have complained of low pressure because the connected cattle
troughs and leak on Goon Farm would have been fixed and the
pressure would no longer have been low (or zero for about an hour
per day for eight years for us). Harmony Cottage and Carn View
would probably not have needed to install new pipes to
Tailings End and saved the considerable expense of doing this. I
say probably because both Carn View and Harmony Cottage (as
well as our own properties) were all sold by Goon Farm with a
water supply connected to ours (I cannot see that their deeds
would include another easement over the same pipe as our deeds do
from the same vendor and Winter Cottage was the
first property Goon Farm
sold back in 1970). Further if SWW had tested the quality of the
water it is almost certain they would have found the water was
polluted by backflow from the many
non-compliant animal troughs on Goon Farm
and elsewhere between Tailings End and our properties. As Mr
Bellward says in his
10
December 2016 letter
(copy attached) he blames these troughs for the diarrhoea he
suffered for years before he stopped using your water in the
summer of 2015. I agree with him and have not used your water for
drinking since then. I have asked SWW several times to confirm
all animal troughs in the area to be certified as compliant
before we trust your mains supply for drinking purposes and
as yet I have not had a reply
and as you can see from the attached
6
December 2016 photos
two of the troughs connected to our supply in January 2015 (which
SWW were informed about at the time (see 30 January 2015 and 2
February 2015 emails to Tudor Cornish and Matt Nicks) are
still non-compliant and
connected to a live supply nearly
two years after we informed SWW about them. I have not yet
checked the dozens of others in the area. Your letter states “Our
Water Regulations team have undertaken a thorough check of the
wider area to ensure there are no other potential sources of
contamination. Some issues have been identified and the
Regulations Officers are working with the property owners to
rectify these. None of the non compliances identified in the wider
area would have any impact on the supply to your property”.
For your information these two animal troughs are still
non-compliant because they have no backflow prevention, no visible
double check valves, no frost protection and little float valve
protection to prevent animal damage furthermore they are full of
category 5 fluid consisting of mains water + rainwater, + algae, +
animal saliva / urine + organic matter such as dead leaves + dead
insects + goodness knows what else! To say that they don’t pose a
risk of contaminating your supply (and hence ours) is ridiculous
and even if (note
if) they are now no longer
connected directly to our supply they had been for many years
almost certainly polluting our drinking water because a
prerequisite for water to backflow is for the supply pressure to
drop to zero and lead to the water in the trough to syphon back
into the supply pipe. Whereas zero pressure is very rare remember
our supply dropped to zero for eight years for about an hour per
day hence our main complaint. I think your regulations team have
rather got their priorities wrong considering the dozens of
letters, several inspections, SWW staff involved in getting me to
permanently disconnect a (turned off anyway) very difficult to
access mains connection to the covered rainwater distribution tank
in the dark (less algae) roof at Goonhillend filled with 5 stage
filtered rainwater. SWW’s notice required me to disconnect this
mains connection within 7 days yet do nothing for nearly 2 years
about these far more dangerous troughs!
I
believe SWW should amend their policies as to where meters are
installed but if they are installed a long way from the main then
the quality of the water as well as the integrity of the supply to
the meter MUST be
tested first to avoid a repeat of this very expensive for all
involved (including SWW) incident.
Your
25
November 2016 letter
states “I can assure you that my
review of your complaint has been extremely thorough and I have
considered all the
information you have presented”. I am afraid I cannot
agree with you as it is very apparent from your letter that you
have not taken into account important documents pertinent
to my complaint and this case. The (considered very important)
4
March 2013 email
mentioned above you have obviously not considered for instance.
This may be that you have ignored them or they have been
deliberately withheld from you or “lost” by the recipients
so before supplying you with the
remainder of this letter will you please confirm you have
had sight of the following documents by emailing me copies. Thank
you in anticipation.
1.
23 July 2012 photo
of a police car attending the land that Goon Farm had for sale at
the time with a “private” water supply that we suspected was
connected to ours
(see
last sentence of www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42804449.html )
As you know it turned out that it
was connected to ours!
We had asked Allister Symonds to check but he refused and said “If
Goon Farm is selling land with an illegal connection to yours then
it is a matter for the Police”. I contacted the Police
who said that it was a civil matter but the legality of the water
supply should be checked by the buyer’s solicitor in the event of
a sale however they did attend the site soon after my contact (see
photo). In your letter you say the “first
record SWW have of our complaint was 29 August 2013”.
I suggest you contact Allister Symonds and ask him when the
first verbal contact was but I think this photo proves that it
must have been before 23 July 2012. For the record we first
complained (verbally) about the low / zero water pressure in
2008/9 and Allister Symonds we think became involved in 2010/11
but definitely in 2012. Photo attached
2.
4 March 2013 (11:55)
email to Allister Symonds.
This email mentions that Goon
Farm’s owner has stated that Goon Farm is now on a metered supply
and the stand pipe on the land they had for sale (see above) was
legal and fed from behind Goon Farm’s new meter. Goon Farm
sold the land in 2014 and it became known as “The Cabin”. The
water supply sold with it was not legal and was connected to our
supply as we suspected. The buyer’s solicitor did not check
whether the supply was legal and it was one of the water supplies
we found to be connected to ours in January 2015 when we started
our survey (see
www.goongumpas.com
). If only Allister Symonds had
done as we asked and checked this supply and the troughs on Goon
Farm then I would not be writing this now
L.
3.
6
February 2014 (15:07) email to Brendon Green (CCwater), Ofwat,
Customer Contact (SWW), T.Ludkin (SWW).
A copy of the
4 March 2014 (15:07) email to Allister Symonds
was attached to this email.
4.
14
February 2014 (11:21) email from Kristian Barber (SWW) to
john@layte.com
Important.
5.
28 April 2014 Notice
to repair a leak
SWW stating (wrongly) that they have found. Posted to
occupiers of Winter Cottage, Goonhillend and The Annexe Winter
Cottage. Now considered “An
incorrect Notice” according to your
25 November 2015
letter
(attached).
It is noted your letter states the £1,500
compensation offered was because of this “incorrect Notice” but if
that were the case why was it (and is now in your letter) being
offered to only one of the 3 recipients?
6.
Goon Farm pipework
schematic (2014)
handed to Alan Brand on one of his visits.
Important.
7.
30 Jan 2015 (15:32)
email
to Tudor Cornish and Matt Nicks.
Very important.
8.
2 February 2015
(16:14) email
to Tudor Cornish.
Very important.
9.
8 February 2015
(18:48) email
to Gwynne Parker Price (Carn View owner), Alister Symonds (SWW),
Customer Contact (SWW), T.Ludkin (SWW), Ofwat, Sarah Newton (MP),
J.Reins (West Briton), Jaqui Walls (DC Media).A
copy of the Winter Cottage Deeds map showing water supply from
Tailings End in the lane, across goon farm land to Winter Cottage
(with a copy of the easement for the private part) was attached
to this email at Gwynne Parker Price’s request.
10.
16 April 2015 letter
from Richard Harrison
to Mr Layte. Lists “violations” regarding the rainwater harvesting
system at Goonhillend only one of which had any merit but he
should have been concentrating on real, dangerous to public
health, violations from the non-compliant troughs on Goon Farm
that we pointed out to him as well as others in the area. As
mentioned above two of these troughs are still non-compliant (see
photos) and there are probably many others in the area.
11.
24 April 2015
(16:24) email
to Customer Leakage (SWW) Sarah Harvey (SWW), Ofwat, Sarah Newton
(MP), J.Reines (West Briton), Devon and Cornwall Police.
A copy of the
4 March 2014 (15:07) email to Allister Symonds
was attached to this email.
12.
Goon Farm pipework
schematic
(March 2015) handed to Mike Shannon on one of his visits.
Important. This is a
slightly updated version of the one handed to Alan Brand in 2014
in the light of new information.
13.
8 May 2015 email to
Sarah Harvey
(SWW), Customer Leakage (SWW), Ofwat, CCwater, Sarah Newton (MP),
J Reines (West Briton).
Important.
14.
9 June 2015 email to
Sarah Harvey
(SWW), Customer Relations (SWW), Customer Leakage (SWW), CCwater,
Offwat, Sarah Newton (MP), J Reines (West Briton).
Important.
15.
3 July 2015 (09:29)
email from Sara Harvey
(SWW) to toplaner@goongumpas (J.Layte, K Layte and Gavin Bellward).
Important.
16.
8 July 2015 (1st)
letter from Richard Harrison
to Mr Layte.
This letter suggests there is a category 3 risk of
backflow from the downstairs shower tray and the upstairs bath
taps because they are connected to the mains and gives 28 days to
comply with the regulations!!!!!!!!!!! But they are not connected
to the mains - both hot and cold are gravity fed from the
rainwater roof tank which admittedly was at the time was still
connected to the mains with the turned off supply whilst a way of
disconnecting it was being contemplated but even so water cannot
defy gravity and get to the roof tank which I would have thought a
6 year old would know but Richard Harrison is a SWW Regulations
officer! These “violations” are numbered 3 and 4 in his letter. I
do not know what 1 and 2 are as that page is missing.
17.
8 July 2015 (2nd)
letter from Richard Harrison
to Mr Layte. This letter contained “violations” 2 and 3 but dated
April 2015 not July. By July violation 2 (marking pipework) had
been done and violation 3 requiring permanent removal of mains
connection to the rainwater roof tank was being contemplated but
was not completed until September due to its complexity because of
access problems.
18.
17 July 2015 (16:48)
email (17
July letter to Sarah Harvey attached),
Customer Leakage (SWW), Ofwat, Sarah Newton (MP), J.Reines (West
Briton), CCwater, Devon and Cornwall Police.
Important.
19.
7 August 2015 letter
from Robert Goulden
to Mr Layte.
This letter claims that SWW first became aware of
the rainwater harvesting system at Goonhillend “Following
involvement in another matter at your premises and details were
passed to the Water Regulations Department in April 2015”.
For the record my 30 January 2015 (15:32) email to Tudor Cornish (SWW)
and Mark Nicks (SWW) gives details of the rainwater harvesting
system both current and intended and it is not my fault that these
details were not passed to the Water Regulations Department in
January 2015.
20.
17 August 2015
letter from Robert Goulden
(SWW) to Mr Layte.
Important.
21.
25 August 2015
letter from E. Hough
(for the Company Solicitor Pennon Group PLC ) to Mr Layte.
Important.
22.
3 September 2015
letter from Mark Baker
to Mr Layte.
Important.
23.
7 September 2015
(11:30) email to Robert Goulden
(SWW), Customer Leakage (SWW), Sarah Newton (MP), Sarah Harvey (SWW),
CCwater, Customer Relations (SWW), Allister Symonds (SWW), Devon
and Cornwall Police. This email
is one of several that attaches a
diagram of a compliant animal trough
and a request that SWW confirm that all animal troughs in
the area comply.
As can be seen from the attached
6 December 2016
photo
at least two of them don’t 15 months after this request.
very important.
24.
14 September 2015
(16:51) email from Mike Shannon
(SWW) to Toplaner@Goongumpas (J.L) containing the text “As
you have previously requested I am also copying Mrs Layte and Mr
Bellward into this email”
but as can be seen they were not. See
1
December 2015 email from Chris Broxton bellow.
This email mentions our concerns about non-compliant animal
troughs in the area and states “there
is no evidence currently available to confirm this”
Which of course is bunkum as Richard Harrison and two other SWW
inspectors had been shown two such animal troughs at least six
months previous to this and Richard Harrison had declared
two of them non-compliant
and pointed out a third (which we were not aware of) as also
non-compliant.
Important.
25.
22 September 2015
SWW’s letter from Paul Mitchell
to Mr Layte. (copy attached).
There is hardly a sentence in this threatening letter that is the
truth as Mr Mitchell has obviously been seriously misinformed by
someone and he should learn not to write such letters before
checking his information is fact not fiction.
Very important indeed.
(copy attached)
26.
11 October 2015
(23:17) email
J.Layte’s 9 October response to
Paul Mitchell’s 22
September 2015 letter
copied to numerous recipients including David Cameron (PM). Sarah
Newton (MP). Christopher Loughlin (SWW), Robert Goulden (SWW),
Mark Baker (SWW), Alister Symonds (SWW), Customer Relations (SWW),
customerleakage (SWW), Jeff Steere (SWW), Devon and Cornwall
Police, mailbox@ofwat, Spotlight (BBC), J Reienes (West Briton), +
a request to forward to Paul Mitchel as his letter has no email
address.
Very important.
27.
12 October 2015 (08:51) Due to
reports that the above
11
October 2015 email
had not arrived a second copy was sent on 12 October 2015 (08:51)
to the same recipients.
As above very important.
28.
19 October 2015
letter from Chris Broxton
(SWW) to Mr Layte.
29.
1 December 2015
email from Chris Broxton
to Mrs Layte and Mr Bellward finally supplying them with a copy of
Mr Shannon’s 14 September 2015 email that states they were copied
into it but they were not.
30. 2
December 2015 letter from Chris Broxon
to Mr Layte.
31.
15 February 2016
(12:06) email from Mike Shannon
to J.Layte.
32. 25
February 2016 (10:23) email from Sarah Newton to Customer
Relations (SWW) FAO SWW
Chief Executive – Dr Stephen Bird. (this email
attached a chronology
we had provided Sarah with)
Important.
33.
3 March 2016 (09:45)
email from Sarah Newton (MP)
to J.Layte which includes a letter detailing the Government’s view
on backflow prevention regulations pertaining to central heating
header/expansion tanks. A copy of this email was presented to Mike
Shannon at our 4 March 2016 meeting as I thought it important as
regards to your Regulations Officer Richard Harrison’s failure to
warn me of the risk of backflow from this tank at Goonhillend and
Jeff Steere’s statement at the 13 October 2015 meeting that my
installing a backflow prevention to this tank was unnecessary as
there were no Regulations requiring it. Mike Shannon did not read
the Government’s regulation as he said “he
had not brought his reading glasses with him”. His
colleague started to read it to him but Mike Shannon interrupted
before he reached the part of it regarding Central heating header
tanks stating it was “unimportant
and nothing to do with the purpose of the meeting”. He
ended the meeting at that point and was clearly annoyed that Mrs
Layte had been unable to attend. He left without taking a copy of
the file I had prepared for him (which included a copy of this
email) meaning you will not have had a copy when considering my
complaint regarding this so I have attached a copy to this email
for your perusal.
34.
22 March 2016 letter
from Dr Stephen Bird (SWW)
to Sarah Harvey (MP) relating to this case (albeit a rather
distant relation!). Ill-informed nonsense and I will be writing to
him after Christmas pointing out his mistakes. Interestingly Dr
Bird states “We have already
informed Mr Layte that the Waste Water notice (28 April
2014 above) was correctly issued”
whereas your
25 November 2016
letter
(attached) states that it was “incorrectly
issued”.
35.
4 April 2016 (14:30) email from
yourself to toplaner@goongumpas
(me), Kath Layte and Gavin Bellward confirming a meeting is
required with Mr Bellward, Kath Layte and myself attending to
discuss compensation being paid to all three of us as you sent the
28
April 2014 Notice
(now described as an “incorrect Notice” in your
25 November 2016
letter)
to all three of us yet offered the £1,500 compensation only to me
to conclude this matter. Note you
refused my request for a meeting in our phone call of 7 December
2016.
36.
4 April 2016 (14:30)
email from Chris Broxton
(SWW) to toplaner@goongumpas (me), Kath Layte and Gavin Bellward
confirming a meeting is required with Mr Bellward, Kath Layte and
myself attending to discuss compensation being paid to all three
of us as you sent the 28 April 2014 Notice (now described as an
“incorrect Notice” in your
25 November 2016
letter)
to all three of us yet offered the £1,500 compensation only to me
to conclude this matter. Note you
refused my request for a meeting in our phone call of 7 December
2016.This email appears identical and was sent at an
identical time as the above one from yourself but was apparently
sent by Chris Broxton. Did he send this or did you send it on his
behalf?
The
above may not be a complete list because of the many computer
crashes I experienced during mid 2015 to about August 2016 in
which some documents were lost. As I said above the 29 August 2013
communication from me is an example and if you have any other
documents not mentioned above I would be grateful if you would
email me copies for my records.
There
is one document you will not have had sight of which relates to my
10
May 2016 complaint
regarding your Regulations Team’s failure to warn me about the
very real backflow danger from the central heating header tank at
Goonhillend.
Extract from my
10
may 2016 draft complaint
SWW’s regulations officer’s failure to identify a
serious backflow risk from the central heating header /
expansion tank in the roof at Goonhillend and their statement
that the newly installed backflow protection was “unnecessary
and not required by the Government”.
It is noted that your
25 November 2016 response
to my
10 May 2016 complaint
makes no reference to this part of it.
This
tank had identical mains connections /overflow size to the
rainwater distribution tank except that it was connected 24/7/365
to your mains as opposed to turned off unless in case of drought
(somewhat rare in Cornwall) as was the case with the rainwater
distribution tank. The fluid in this tank (40 year old stagnant
water containing antifreeze and corrosion inhibiter additives with
some kind of slime on the surface) was far more noxious than the 5
stage filtered rainwater in the rainwater distribution tank yet
your regulations team ignored it.
When
your Regulations team inspected on 13 October 2016 and asked what
the small backflow prevention tank in the roof was for I explained
that it was backflow prevention to the central heating header /
expansion tank and although it was one of their suggestions for
backflow prevention for the rainwater tank it was nothing to do
with that tank and was not connected to it and they were here to
confirm I had disconnected the mains connection from the rainwater
tank (which I had),
installed a pointless double check valve (which
I had) and installed the utterly pointless recommendations
to the “violations“ to the downstairs shower and upstairs bath as
per
Richard Harrison’s 8 July 2015 letter
(which I hadn’t as they were not
violations). Your Regulations officer Jeff Steere stated
that there was no need for me to have installed such a backflow
prevention device as there was no regulation requiring this. I was
surprised about this as common sense suggested there should be and
asked my MP to check.
I attach a
copy of the response
she received from The
House of Commons Library, Policy Specialist
(Environment), Science &
Environment Section
and have highlighted the relevant sentences. As you can see your
regulations team and the Government disagree on this and I believe
SWW must address this issue.
When I showed Mike Shannon this letter at our 4 March 2016 meeting
he didn’t want to know, made the excuse that he could not read it
as he had not brought his reading glasses with him and declined to
take a copy away for later perusal which is why you will not have
had a copy to refer to when considering my complaint. I have
attached a copy. What are SWW
going to do about the very real risk of backflow from central
heating header tanks? Goonhillend is now protected but is
any other property in your whole area that installed such tanks
before the current regulations came into force? Shouldn’t all your
customers be warned of the risk? I realize this may be a can of
worms but the lid has been lifted because your Regulations Team
concentrated on one tank whilst ignoring the other central heating
header tank that had identical mains connections and overflow but
considerably higher risk of backflow (I will not explain why in
this letter but your Regulations Team should know why). Now that
this can of worms has been opened I think that SWW (and probably
all other water authorities) must
do something about it to safeguard their customers.
There
are many more pages of this letter that I could email now
but the Christmas period is coming up so I will not do so until
January and in any case the rest of the letter is mainly details
of my complaints against various SWW employees and not so
important as the points raised in this part of the letter so it
may be that I decide to send the rest of this letter as separate
communications to be considered in conjunction with it. This will
give SWW a chance to prove that the pipe after the Tailings End
meter enters Five Acres private land (as you say it does) as
opposed to our view that it goes down the lane towards Goon Farm
and is thus a communication pipe and SWW’s responsibility. It will
also give you, Tracy, a chance to prove that your
25
November 2016 letter
was written having regard to the evidence listed above but I have
to say I will consider your response to my complaint to be null
and void if you cannot supply me with a copy of all the
documents listed (except the ones marked as attached).
I
think the only way SWW can prove the supply pipe enters Five Acres
private land at Tailings End is to dig up the lane and see if it
does and while you are about it investigate what appears to be a
leak (see
attached photo)
further down the lane towards Goon Farm. If it is a leak
then it is not on “our” pipe as we have recently tested it which
reveals the weekly flow to be zero – quite an improvement on
97,190 ltrs I think you will agree
J.
It would be interesting if it proves to be a leak and
if it were on, say, the pipe leading to Goon Farm and Goon
Farm complain of low pressure. Would you install a meter at
Tailings End on Goon Farm’s pipe and send a Notice claiming to
have “found a leak on the private pipe leading to Goon Farm”
giving them 30 days to fix it (as you did with us)? Or would you
concede it is a communication pipe and SWW’s responsibility to
repair? Obviously someone is going to have to dig up the lane to
see if you are right (the pipe enters Five Acres land) or we, Mike
Shannon , Kevin Bray and Winter Cottage deeds map is right (the
pipe goes down the lane towards Goon Farm). I need hardly point
out that if we are right then every single letter that claims that
All the pipe from Tailings
End to our properties is a private pipe will become invalid
in an instant.
This
whole fiasco has cost a vast amount of money both to SWW and
ourselves and to a lesser extent Carn View and Harmony Cottage
(for installing (probably) unnecessary new pipes from Tailings
End) and the prime cause is your policy of installing meters far
from your mains without testing the integrity and wholesomeness of
the supply to the meter. However, the costs started mounting up
hugely when Allister Symonds became involved when we, Harmony
Cottage and Carn View complained of low /zero water pressure he
should have spent a couple of hours investigating and another
couple of hours installing a meter at Tailings End on our joint
supply pipe which would have revealed the massive leak on Goon
Farm and the non-compliant animal troughs polluting our water too.
Instead he advised us that it was a private pipe from Tailings End
(questionable I think) and we should all install new pipes to
Tailings End (they did we didn’t). A third chance came when Allan
Brand became involved in 2013. He did install a meter (at our
insistence) which revealed the leak but other than sending us a
notice blaming our “private” pipe in the hope that we would do
something about it another year and 5,000,000 ltrs of wasted water
went by before we did do something about it. It took us about 3
days to find out the main cause - 90,000 ltr per week wastage due
to a leak on Goon Farm that had been going on for years. At this
point (February 2015) SWW should have taken over the investigation
but Alan Brand did not. It took us another 7 months to get the
remaining 7,000 ltrs per week stopped by the simple expedient of
installing a rainwater harvesting system to tide us by whilst we
turned off the supply at Tailings End to see if anyone complained
to SWW that their supply had stopped. Only one did. All the others
modified their pipework , disconnected from our supply and
connected to another. In order to do this (other than install a
rainwater harvesting system) we had to deal with several visits
from SWW leakage officers and show them around the area (connected
troughs etc), several visits from your regulations team concerning
a very minor violation regarding our rainwater harvesting tank
(very minor compared to other violations in the area that our
investigations revealed and which are still extant two years
later), walking nearly two hundred miles reading meters and
investigating pipework in the wider area, installing a totally
unnecessary double check valve at Goonhillend and so on. It is
difficult to say how many hours it has taken us to achieve this
result but even this letter has taken about three weeks to write
and all the others took many hundreds of hours. The installation
of the rainwater harvesting system took about 100 hours and the
installation of the pointless double check valve two days. The new
pipe to the roof at Goonhillend to feed the central heating header
tank was needed as the old pipe to the roof had to be disconnected
because of your regulation teams insistence took three weeks as it
necessitated cutting a 1 metre sized hole in the stone gable end
of the cottage and feeding it under the bath (very awkward!) then
to the central heating header tank. Half a day spent with Mr
Bellward’s father attending a meeting with my (and his son’s) MP
Sarah Harvey concerning our distrust of our water supply and the
legality of central heating header tanks. 3 weeks setting up a
website (www.goongumpas.com)
which we think was the best way to advertised the fact that the
supply was being monitored and the results published for all to
see. At least a further 3 weeks in total uploading the readings on
a daily basis. In all I have probably spent more than 1400 hours
which is time I should have spent working on Winter Cottage to get
it up to standard to market. We have recently (nearly) finished it
and put it on the market but this could have been done six to nine
months ago if it were not for all the time spent dealing with
your problem. Mr Bellward
and Mrs Layte also spent quite a bit of time investigating,
reading meters etc. Mr Bellward’s father has spent about eighteen
months bringing him drinking and cooking water three times a week
because of SWW’s failure to certify all animal troughs in the area
as compliant. How much time have SWW spent? Well dozens of letters
and emails. Four or five inspections from your regulations team
(once with two private plumbers in tow) inspecting a rainwater
harvesting system that would not have been installed if it were
not for your insistence that the leak was our problem and not
yours. Three meetings with Mike Shannon and his colleague. Looking
at
www.goongumpas.com
many times (100?) and also looking at the
video
of the “non” inspection several times. You have said that your
25
November 2016 letter
response to my
10
May 2016 complaint
took you three to four weeks to investigate and so on. How much
has it cost SWW to pay all your salaries? I dread to think but at
least you and the rest of SWW staff involved are paid whereas we
are not. All of this is due to the fact that SWW installed meters
without testing the supply and Allister Symonds and Alan Brand
failed to spend a couple of hours installing a meter at Tailings
End to try and find out why our pressure was low and dropped to
zero for about an hour a day. I note that your letter states
(regarding the £1,500 compensation offered (to one of us)) “I
believe this to be an appropriate and reasonable offer”.
Once again I do not agree and I suspect that Mr Bellward and Mrs
Layte do not agree that the £0 offered to them is reasonable
either considering all the time and continuing inconvenience they
have had to put up with! Remember Mr Bellward, like myself and Mrs
Layte, had to put up with zero water more or less daily for years.
Mr Bellward started recording the dates and times the pressure
dropped to zero in 2012 (His full list can be viewed
HERE).
A list of dates and times between 22 July 2012 and 20 February
2013 was provided to Allister Symonds attached to the 4 March 2013
email. The time taken to compile this list alone I am sure you
will agree is worth more than £0. It should have been helpful to
SWW in demonstrating the scale of the problem but was dismissed as
a private matter as SWW’s responsibility ended at Tailings End but
does it?
Some
of the documents and photos I have attached are only pertinent to
the rest of this letter but I have attached them anyway and I am
sure you will be able to recognize their significance.
In
short will SWW please –
1.
Confirm that all animal troughs in
the area comply with the regulations.
2.
Confirm that your policy of
installing meters far from your main without first checking the
wholesomeness and integrity of the supply ceases
3.
Confirm that you will inform all your
customers of the dangers to their health from backflow from
unprotected central heating header / expansion tanks.
4.
Confirm that in future your employees
take reports of low/ zero pressure in an area with nearby animal
troughs very seriously because of the danger of backflow pollution
to the supply and not just say “it
is a private pipe and not our responsibility”.
5.
Prove that Tracy Symon’s statement
that the pipe after the Tailings End stop tap / meter enters Five
Acres private land and does not
continue down the lane towards Goon Farm.
6.
Instruct your Regulations officers
that water cannot defy gravity.
7.
Tell Mr Mitchell not to write letters
such as his 22
September 2015
one (attached) unless he is sure his information is valid. For the
record I did not deny your Regulations Officers access to the loft
at Goonhillend, there is / was no new pipework in the roof space
so as to restrict access to the rainwater distribution tank in any
way whatsoever, the roof is not dangerous except in so much as
crawling boards are required to lay across the ceiling joists as a
prominent notice next to the loft hatch states (see
attached photo).
Richard Harrison did not bring his own crawling boards for the 17
September 2015 inspection despite knowing they were required from
his earlier visits and as can be heard in the
video
I offered to lend him mine several times but he did not answer.
There is / was no covered pipework in the roof. There is obviously
the normal insulation above the ceiling joists and around the
tanks.
If
ONLY Allister Symonds and Alan Brand had spent a couple of hours
installing a meter at Tailings End all those years ago
I am
sure you are aware of the expression “Mighty oaks from little
acorns grow” Tracy. I am sure you are also aware of the expression
“in the benefit of hindsight” and thus I am sure SWW are aware
that the two acorns here go by the names of Allister Symonds and
Alan Brand.
My
apologies this is such a long letter but actually it is only half
of it. The other half will be published in January.
Merry
Christmas and (hopefully) a leak free new year to you all at South
West Water.
John
Layte

Attached / hyperlinks
25
November 2016 Letter from Tracy Symons (SWW)
22 September 2015 letter from Paul Mitchell (SWW)
10
December 2016 letter from Mr G Bellward to SWW
Service pipe responsibilities
Central heating tank backflow Government regulations
Goon
Farm troughs 6 December 2016
Crawling board notice roof Goonhillend
Goon
Farm Police inspection
Possible leak in lane
SWW
visitor log goongumpas.com
Area
pipes with no frost protection
N.B.
The
10
May 2016 complaint
mentioned was sent as an attachment to my
27
October 2016 email
to Tracy Symons |