Number of burst mains 'not normal' - water bosses say

There have been an "unusually high" number of burst mains across Swindon since this rupture on County Road in Summer 2023

A water company has said it is “concerned” about the unusually high number of burst water mains in Swindon in the last 18 months, which bosses say “is not normal”.

Managers from Thames Water were facing questions from a cross-party committee of borough councillors, called after a raft of local complaints.

While they do not believe there is one single cause for the leaks, the firm admitted many plastic pipes are failing decades earlier than they were designed for.

During the meeting on Monday evening the firm acknowledged seven "major bursts" in the last year.

The scrutiny committee chairman, Conservative Dale Heenan, said that in his 20 years as a councillor the meeting had seen "the most number of public questions and most interest that we've ever had in a council committee".

A burst in the Grange Park area in June was one of several in the town where older plastic piping failed, causing days of disruption

Mr Heenan added that one of they key questions was "why are so many mains water pipes bursting, even young ones at 20 years old, when they should be lasting over a hundred years?"

"We are trying to find out," Thames Water's head of regional networks, David Haydon, said, acknowledging "what we're seeing isn't normal".

Mr Haydon said that so far there was no indication there is one single cause for all the problems, but part of the issue appears to be some of the plastic piping that was installed in the 1970s and 80s during Swindon's big growth.

Breaking 'like glass'

He added that they "are not lasting as long as they should under their design criteria, they become like glass and begin to break".

One reason could be a changing climate as "significant spells of dry weather swinging into significant spells of wet weather" do increase the chance of leaks, according to Thames Water's strategic development manager, John Hernon.

In the meantime the company said some parts of Swindon have seen their water pressure drop - an intentional temporary move by Thames Water to reduce the chances of further bursts.

Chair of the committee, Dale Heenan, said he hoped the meeting would lead to better relations with Thames Water

The meeting heard the experiences of a local headteacher, Charles Drew, whose school has repeatedly had to shut at short notice due to disrupted water supplies, most recently during the exam season.

Thames Water bosses at the meeting apologised for the disruption caused to The Commonweal School in Old Town.

Afterwards Mr Drew told the BBC his "sincere hope" is the water company will "do everything in their power to stop this from happening again".

Thames Water apologised to Charles Drew, the headteacher at The Commonweal School, after repeated disruption caused by nearby burst mains

Thames Water bosses were also challenged on the "backflow" of sewage which has been affecting residents around Birch Street near the town centre.

One resident, Lisa MacCready, told the meeting they had been "flooded three times in three years".

"I'm fearful we're going to get flooded again," she said.

Thames Water's area manager Stuart Burnley said the issue was not down to defects, but "purely hydraulic overload".

In response to the concerns he said the pipes in that area will be cleared of sediment every month to stop it happening again.

Thames Water faced questions from Swindon councillors for three hours

Meanwhile the meeting heard a warning that one of the region's largest new housing schemes could "grind to a halt" because Thames Water had been too slow to install the necessary water infrastructure.

The New Eastern Villages would see 8,500 new homes built on patches of land to the East of the A419 - but despite planning permission councillor Gary Sumner said Thames Water's lack of action was a "significant block to new housing in Swindon".

Thames Water's strategic development manager John Hernon said the firm was making "really big efforts", but said progress had "stagnated" - suggesting cuts to the borough council's planning department had made it much harder to engage with officers in recent years.