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06
Oct
Harrogate residents ‘very disappointed’ after Yorkshire Water fails to fix leak for four months
A Harrogate resident has expressed his disappointment with Yorkshire Water after a patio resurfacing was left torn up for four months due to a pipe leak.
Wally Wallace, 71, is a board member at the Queen’s Close residency in Harrogate.
When the Stray Ferret met him at the grounds last week, he told us that a project to resurface the outdoor patio had been halted when they found a leak underneath the original paving stones.
Mr Wallace reported the leak to Yorkshire Water in the hope that it would be fixed and the project could continue.
However. the stones have since been left upturned for months as no progress has been made to fix the leak.
Mr Wallace said:
It’s been left in this state since June 4. I reported it to Yorkshire Water as soon as we found the leak. We were told that it would have been fixed by June 10 by the first guy who came to examine it. Of course, it’s now four months later.
The standing water is still there.
Mr Wallace added that multiple ‘network controllers’ had visited the site to decide what needs to be done.
While he admitted that their communication had been helpful, he said the water company had struggled to coordinate the relevant teams to do the job.
The 71-year-old said that three teams are needed to complete the job: a digging team, a water removal team and a ‘res team’, which fixes the pipe. But in previous visits to the site, they have been unable to coordinate effectively.
He said:
They were supposed to sort it on September 12. The digging team turned up, but had to wait about four hours until the water removal tanker turned up. They couldn’t start their work until the water had been removed.
When the tanker finally turned up, the hoses they had on board wouldn’t reach the leak so they all just went away. It was another day wasted.
The patio has been left unfinished and neglected.
Queen’s Close is located on Lancaster Road, hidden away behind the Duchy Hospital, with access via a small private driveway. Surrounded by trees and shrubs, it is quiet and peaceful.
Of the residents in the 30 flats of the building, many are over 70. However, they were left unable to enjoy the summer months outside on the patio because of these works.
Mr Wallace said that this had affected residents massively. He said:
People really wanted to sit out in the summer. We’ve got new patio furniture and spent a lot of money having the patio done, and they haven’t been able to use it. It’s very disappointing for them.
Of course, the other shoot-off of this is that the contractors we hired to do the patio are still waiting to finish the job. They’ll have to try and fit us in now between their jobs and they’re fully booked until December.
Mr Wallace said that he had taken the complaints to the highest level of Yorkshire Water, but has had no luck with them yet.
He added that he contacted Nicola Shaw, chief executive of the company, directly about the issue, but she didn’t respond, which he described as ‘really disappointing’.
So, what would Mr Wallace say to the managers of this project?
He said:
Sort your management system out and get the people who know what they’re doing on the ground. They need to get the correct teams here all at the same time to actually do their job and fix the leak.
And get your communication sorted out. They have one telephone number, and you can be waiting on the line for 40 minutes. You speak to someone and they put you through to the right department, which can take another 20 minutes. I’ve wasted so many hours on the phone.
'We understand the frustration'
The Stray Ferret put Mr Wallace's concerns to Yorkshire Water and offered them the chance to respond.
A spokesperson for the company said:
We understand the frustration of residents at Queen's Close in regard to the ongoing work at the property and would like to apologise for the delays to the repair.
When we initially attended to determine why there was pooling water, we came across an unmapped sewer network. When a second team re-attended to open up the sewer, they were unable to do so due to water filling the open excavation. As a result of these complications, the investigation required a joint visit between multiple teams so that a diagnosis could be completed accurately and safely. Regrettably, this has taken longer than we would have liked but it is now planned for the 15 October.
We will be excavating and accessing the sewer, determining how the leak has occurred and the best course of action going forward.
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