MP vows to meet water firm again over outages

An MP has said he will meet senior figures at Anglian Water "again" after rural businesses were left without water due to burst pipes.

Stuart Andrew, the Conservative MP for Daventry, said areas including East Farndon and Clipston in Northamptonshire were affected over the weekend.

People in these villages were also without water during a heatwave in May.

Anglian Water thanked customers for their patience while its teams restored supplies as "quickly and safely as possible".

"I know how frustrating it is for residents to once again be experiencing problems with their water supply," said Andrew, writing on social media earlier this week.

"I will be meeting senior representatives again to go through what has happened and, crucially, what needs to change to make the local network more resilient and prevent residents repeatedly finding themselves in this position."

Andrew acknowledged that senior Anglian Water staff were in East Farndon meeting residents during the weekend, and distributing bottled water.

Lorna Vain, 38, who runs Waterloo Farm Leisure near Market Harborough, said she was "heartbroken" to have closed the tearoom on Sunday.

"There was nothing coming out of the tap and it was an awful situation to find ourselves in due to the hygiene issue," she recalled.

"We couldn't flush the loos or wash our hands."

She said she had no water between 07:50 and 20:00 BST, and estimated the family business lost out on about £1,500.

"Every penny makes such a difference," she continued.

"We had lots of breakfast and lunch bookings, a joint of meat in the oven – it was lovely weather so we would probably have been busier than usual."

Vain added: "I dived out to get bottled water to hand out to camping customers, so they could brush their teeth."

She said other nearby pubs told her they were affected.

The Tollemarche Arms in Harrington also told customers via a statement on Facebook that it had to close on Friday because it could not "safely operate" without water.

Anglian Water said previous repairs were "successfully completed" but "we experienced further bursts in the area which required additional repair work."

"It was a complicated and challenging issue to fix, but we know being without water for any amount of time can be worrying and stressful for customers," a spokesperson added.

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