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13
Feb
'Buckets to flush the toilet': Green Hammerton residents voice frustration over water crisis
Residents of Green Hammerton struggled for days in January without reliable access to running water and were forced to improvise just to meet their most basic needs.
Dozens of local residents gathered in the village hall on Tuesday (February 10) to meet five senior members of Yorkshire Water, including its director of customer distribution and collection, Matt Pinder, to discuss the poor communication and delays in resolving the disruption.
Russ Piper, a local father caring for his adult disabled son, described the challenges he faced:
The carer had to fetch buckets of water just to flush the toilet. When I tried to call, I got cut off. When I finally got through, the automated message told me about a hosepipe ban that ended four weeks ago. And when I followed up, they completely missed the point about communication.
Other residents recounted similar struggles. One man with a disabled wife was promised water that never arrived; when he called again, the response veered toward selling boiler insurance. Another said dealing with call handlers was so frustrating that "it would be easier to chew a brick".
During the meeting, Yorkshire Water repeatedly apologised for its handling of the situation, saying that "it should never have happened".
Yorkshire Water said there were 41 people registered on the Priority Services Register in the village – these are people who are disabled or need extra support in the event of supply disruption.
The company has pledged to offer each resident £70 in compensation, and the community’s hub will receive a donation of £1,400. This is in addition to any further compensation residents are entitled to.
Green Party councillor Arnold Warneken, who represents the Ouseburn division, commended the residents of Green Hammerton for their resolve during the ordeal, as well as thanking Yorkshire Water for its eventual response to the situation:
I’m pleased that Yorkshire Water have come to listen to the community, especially given the difficulty that many have had in getting hold of someone at the company. It’s great that they have recognised the seriousness with a donation to the community.
For many people, we know that nothing can compensate for the extreme difficulty that the lack of water and information caused them. I’m particularly mindful of the vulnerable, and the carers who already have very challenging circumstances without the extra burden of no water.
The residents had some really useful observations and didn’t hold back when describing the consensus of lack of service.
Green Hammerton residents at the village meeting.
He added that he hopes this situation has been a wake-up call for Yorkshire Water and that it will stay true to its promise of compensation:
We will now have to wait and see whether Yorkshire Water will change their ways and truly listen to customers, instead of believing their automated systems.
To everyone in the community, Yorkshire Water have told us that everyone should receive their compensation payments automatically by the 18th February. I will be keeping a watchful eye on whether future promises are delivered.
I’m grateful to the Yorkshire Water team for attending the meeting. We agreed on one thing: they got it wrong. And to those priority customers unable to attend, I can assure you – we fought your corner.
In a statement made to The Stray Ferret, Matt Pinder, director of customer distribution at Yorkshire Water, said:
We apologise to the customers who were impacted during supply issues in Green Hammerton, and we recognise our communications to residents did not meet our usual standards. We completed deliveries to almost 40 properties in the area on our Priority Services Register and provided updates via text where we could, but we understand for some customers, this did not go far enough, and we apologise.
We will be completing a thorough internal review of this incident, including our operational response and the communications to customers over the period they were impacted, and we will implement any improvements necessary to ensure we improve the service provided to customers in the event of supply problems in the future. We will share the findings of this review with the local community.
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