MP quizzes water boss over supply loss in heatwave

An MP has called for improvements to water supplies following outages during May's heatwave, saying "there are questions for the company to be answering".

Daventry MP Stuart Andrew met Anglian Water's chief executive Mark Thurston after people went without supplies for two days in areas including East Farndon, Clipston, Arthingworth, Great Oxendon, Upper Boddington and Eydon.

Some residents also complained about difficulties accessing bottled water during the outage and registered vulnerable customers not receiving enough support.

The firm apologised and said it was "carrying out a full review of the incidents to understand how we could strengthen our response to similar issues".

Keith Simmons, chair of Eydon Parish Council, has been highly critical of the water company, saying the supply has been seriously affected in recent years despite Anglian Water previously promising to carry out work to make it more resilient.

"Well, that was quietly dropped after the main was done because they wanted to invest elsewhere," he said.

"That doesn't build us trust and confidence in our water supply."

Conservative MP Andrew said residents in the Eydon area had had to "suffer and endure" outages to supply over recent months.

"The chief exec has promised me that he is going to have a proper look at all of the issues there to see exactly what the plan is and to try and bring some reliability.

"The chair of the parish council is absolutely right. People have a right to know that they're going to get the water when they need it and particularly when the weather is so hot."

Andrew said places around Harthingworth and East Farndon had run out of water because Anglian Water had not been aware of a major event being held at Kelmarsh.

"And so the demand was such that it put pressure on a pump and that failed," he said.

Andrew also urged the firm to communicate better during outages.

"Residents have said to me, they would rather a gloomy, honest answer than an over -optimistic answer that's just never going to be achieved," he said.

"I have to say in fairness to the chief executive, he took everything on very, very seriously."

In a statement Anglian Water said it was "really sorry that some customers in Northamptonshire were without water".

It recently said investment had been identified to improve resilience in the network.

The MP said he planned further meetings with the company "to keep an eye on this".

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