Water supply issues 'disgust' campsite owners

It is the busiest time of the year for the campsite and it remains open to customers

The owners of a Cornish campsite have said they were "absolutely disgusted" repairs were being done to a nearby dam during their busiest time of the year, resulting in faulty water supplies.

Music Water Touring Park near Padstow has been fetching buckets of water from a stream to help flush the toilets, and has had to close the shower block at times.

Taps have been running at low pressure or not at all in the St Eval area since 19 July.

South West Water (SWW) said: "We have tankers out around the network to boost pressure in the area and help to return supply to normal as we look to compete the work as quickly as possible."

'Full campsite'

Victoria Verco, who runs the campsite, said she was "really angry" at "whoever decided to do something like this in the busiest season we've got".

On Friday morning, she said SWW provided a water tanker to help the campsite operate.

It would stay every day until 22:00 BST until the problem was solved, she added.

She said: "It's a peak summer holiday season for us. We've got a lot of people and we had no warning this would happen at all. We've had a full campsite full of people."

She added: "I'm absolutely disgusted. I've been really angry, whoever decided to do something like this in the busiest season we've got...it's just ridiculous. I'm so angry, it's going to affect our business.

"I won't know the implications of this until later, I'm so angry we pay a lot for water with the campsite and for them to do this at this time of year is awful, it's a terrible time to do it."

'Supply issues'

SWW had said: "We are carrying out essential maintenance to the Bears Down service reservoir near Newquay.

"As demand has also increased due to the recent hot weather, some customers have been experiencing intermittent supply issues, such as low pressure or no water during peak periods.

"We have tankers out around the network to boost pressure in the area and help to return supply to normal as we look to compete the work as quickly as possible."

In an updated statement, a spokesperson said there had been "some delay in getting the reservoir back into service".

It added it was due to "essential, unplanned work".

"In the meantime, we are successfully meeting customer demand through tankers with now minimal impact on customers and businesses, however we are sorry for any disruption this has caused.”