WATER PRESSURE AND LEAKS IN BEECH – UPDATE
Survey results and report – January 2024.
Thanks to everyone who completed the Water Pressure Survey in November/December 2023. The results and analysis from the survey were presented to the Parish Council on January 15th 2024 and a final report including recommendations was submitted shortly afterwards.
The full report and supporting documentation is available below.
Survey results headlines:
- Response rate: 50% of all applicable Beech households completed the survey.
- 20.4% of all households have had a problem caused by abnormal water pressure.
- The village was then segmented according to supply pressure and results analysed:
- In the highest pressure area (12+ bar), 32% of all households reported problems.
- In the lowest pressure area (4-8 bar) only 6% of all households reported a problem.
Conclusion:
With over five times the number of households in the highest supply pressure area reporting problems compared with those in more normal supply pressure areas, this confirms that there is a genuine issue here that should not be considered as acceptable.
Review of Water Industry Specifications for Blue Supply Pipe and Fittings:
SE Water’s own documentation states that the (customer owned) supply pipe rating that they recommend is 10 bar.
SE Water’s average supply pressure to the lower part of Beech is 12.5 bar which rises to 15 bar overnight when demand is low.
OfWat (the industry regulator) states that “Water companies should make sure that high water pressure does not cause damage to a customer’s property if the customer’s fittings meet normal standards.”
Recommendation:
Beech Parish Council to follow up on previous communications with SE Water explaining the outcome of this investigation and demanding action to remove the risk of damage to their customers’ property caused by excessive supply pressure.
An obvious solution here would be for SE Water to offer to fit robust Pressure Reducing Valves on the outlet of their meter for all properties being supplied with 10 bar pressure or more. This would protect customer owned pipework in the lower part of the village without impacting the pressure received by properties in the higher part of the village. [Note: SE Water have already done this for three properties but, so far, have refused to do it for others].
(NW – 30/01/24)