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By RICHARD OSLEY
 
Families left dry as pipes burst

BURST pipes left scores of families without running water at the weekend and sparked a furious ‘blame game’ row between the leader of Camden Council and providers Thames Water.
The cut-off was caused by three separate bursts on Friday and affected supply to several council blocks in Gospel Oak including the Bacton and Wendling in Haverstock Road.
Emergency bottled water disappeared quickly and many residents were left without any alternative supplies.
Thames Water said they ran into problems as they worked on improving pressure in the area on Friday.
But the company yesterday (Wednesday) said that the blame for the gap in service should also be shouldered by the council.
A spokeswoman said that the pumps used in council estates had automatically switched themselves off and were not turned back on by the estate managers until late on Saturday.
She added: “We accept that we have a case to answer. There were three bursts and there was a delay to repairs. But we are not accepting all of the responsibility. The council’s pumps were not switched back on.”
The defence came after Labour council leader Councillor Raj Chada fired off an angry letter to Thames Water managers.
Cllr Chada said: “I am writing to you to express my outrage regarding the disruption of water supply to residential areas in areas such as Bacton, Wendling and Kiln Place over the weekend. The water went off, without warning sometime on Friday evening and for many residents did not come back on again until Sunday.”
He added: “This has caused huge inconvenience, particularly for our elderly residents and is unacceptable. I would ask that you investigate this immediately and put in place measures to prevent such disruption. Should it occur again, I would ask that you consider a better way of distributing the emergency bottles of water, possibly by having a system where they can be given to individual tenants.”
Thames Water said they had supplied 1,000 bottles of water but some people took more than they needed and reserves soon ran low.
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