Anger in Bramley as water crisis enters fourth day

Bottled water stations have been reopened in Bramley

A resident in a Surrey village which is facing weeks without mains water due to a contamination scare has described becoming "violently sick" after drinking from her tap.

More than 600 households in Bramley have been told not to use tap water as work continues to contain a fuel leak from a petrol station.

Thames Water, which has reopened bottled water stations in the village, says the work will take several weeks after alerting customers last week about a “possible deterioration in quality” of water supplies.

Resident Gillian Wadsted said she became unwell after drinking tap water before the alarm was raised: "For about four hours on Friday afternoon I was really sick."

There is anger in the village over roadworks needed for the Thames Water repairs

Thames Water has said work is ongoing to flush the network and replace pipes.

The work is being carried out because of concerns that hydrocarbons from a petrol station have contaminated the water supply.

On Saturday telecommunications company Openreach said there was a risk of an underground explosion in Bramley because of the ongoing petrol leak.

As the situation entered its fourth day, there was concern and anger in the village.

Ms Wadsted told BBC Radio Surrey: "I was violently sick on Friday, having drunk the water on Thursday before we knew.

“For about four hours Friday on afternoon I was really sick - vomiting for about three hours.

“They say you can bathe but you wouldn’t want to bath children in the water because when children bathe they take in water.”

The Wheatsheaf pub in Bramley has imposed tighter smoking regulations while the work is carried out

Another resident said the situation in the village "is very serious".

She said: "We’ve been told 2,000 litres-plus went into the ground in our village from the petrol station.

"We are told now that possibly that was as far back as 2016 and so for years and years, potentially, we have had fuel – petrol - leeching into the ground.”

George Robertson, who runs a family domestic appliance in the High Street, said the road works and traffic lights were causing "huge disruption for us and the people of Bramley".

He said: "It’s caused an absolute nightmare, to be honest.

“It’s quite worrying to think our water’s contaminated. It’s what everyone says when the come in the shop."

Resident Erica Lucas said the situation had caused "a lot of stress".

She said: “I’m having (water bottles) delivered, which is very good, but I still have to carry the heavy bottles upstairs into my bathroom because I live on my own and I’m finding it extremely difficult.

“We bought this house in September and since then we’ve had this water problem which has caused me a tremendous amount of stress financially and mentally.”

Signs warning people not to drink their tap water have been put up in the village

A statement from Thames Water on Monday said: "We are now halfway through our work to dig down to the pipes we need to replace.

"We are using special noise-supressing barriers to help reduce disturbance as much as we can while we carry out this essential work."

Tess Fayers, the company's regional operations director, said: "When we test we have to wait overnight for the lab to process the results.

"We're working on a customer-friendly version of those results so we can share them online and customers can have access to them.

“We are already on site in the village proactively replacing sections of our pipes on Horsham Road to reduce the risk to our customers.”

Water bottle stations reopened on Monday morning

Thames Water is delivering bottled water to vulnerable customers in the area.

Bottled water stations have also been set up at Bramley Community Library, in High Street, and Artington park and ride, Old Portsmouth Road, Guildford.

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