‘How were we so vulnerable to one pipe valve?,’ ask Leighton Linslade councillors

Around 20,000 properties in the Leighton Buzzard and Linslade area were cut off after a problem with a faulty valve.

Councillors across the whole of Central Bedfordshire offered to go to their local shops and bring water into Leighton Buzzard, it emerged.

“And one local lady should be praised,” according to Conservative CBC Leighton Buzzard South councillor David Bowater.

“I think her name was Georgie Cox. She said on social media that she had a van and she was going into a supermarket in Bletchley.

“She would fill it with water and bring it back if anyone wanted any. I think that was fantastic.”

The problems started on Friday (December 13) night when there was low water pressure in the town.

Councillor Bowater expressed his surprise that Anglian Water had relied on a single pipe.

“The simple thing would have been to have two parallel pipes, with duplicate facilities on each pipe at the point where the valve was, so one could be shut off while the other one supplied the town,” he explained.

Conservative Leighton Buzzard South councillor Amanda Dodwell said: “Certainly it was very noticeable on the east side of town and it gradually spread over to the whole town.

“We were quite surprised that all these houses ended up being cut off.

“You wouldn’t think one faulty valve would cut the supply to that number of households.

“I don’t know why it’s as vulnerable as it appears to be. The system is something we are very concerned about as a town.

“The big problem was getting information out to residents,” she added.

“Anglian Water has a website, but it froze on Saturday so we weren’t getting regular updates.

“I’m not sure how they got the message out to elderly and vulnerable people who are not on the internet.

“People were finding out from neighbours basically.”

She explained volunteers were working in all weathers, throughout the weekend, to make sure people got bottled water.

“They were fantastic,” she said. “The weather was appalling and yet they were there during the night and as a town that’s really something we should say ‘thank you’ for.

“And we had Anglian Water staff trying to fix the pipes and they were doing the best they could.”

Liberal Democrat Linslade councillor Peter Snelling said: “The guys on the ground who were helping out were doing a very good job.

“Our water came back on overnight at the top end of Linslade.

“The question is really whether Anglian Water is going to update its infrastructure sufficiently to cope with the new number of homes locally. It’s higher up the organisation.

“The company needs to look at its plans and make sure it’s putting in enough infrastructure to cope with the development we’ve got in the town.

“There are so many different social media sites,” he added.

“People are logged on to different sites, and it’s getting the same message to all of them which isn’t particularly easy.”