Water customers take storm claims to watchdog

Residents in Surrey who had no water supply for several days following Storm Ciaran are taking their claims for compensation to an independent regulator.

Customers should be able to get automatic compensation for loss of supplies.

But claims by some residents in Farncombe have been turned down because Thames Water said their supply was not off continuously for 12 hours.

Some of those affected are seeking an independent review of their cases by the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), the statutory water watchdog body.

Hanifa Valentine said she had been turned down twice.

The Farncombe resident told BBC Radio Surrey: "I got a letter to say I wasn't entitled to any compensation because I had a bar pressure of 0.3 and I was without water for less than 12 hours.

"It must have been a figment of my imagination, having no water."

At the suggestion of her local MP Jeremy Hunt, she reapplied in January.

"They reviewed it and said, 'you're still not entitled to anything'. It really isn't about the money anymore, it's completely based on principle."

Ms Valentine said she plans to take her case to the CCW.

Victoria Cooper-Smith, also from Farncombe, was denied compensation and is also going to the CCW.

She said: "We had to go to my mother-in-law's for a shower. We were filling one loo with water from the garden and the others were out of action.

"We definitely didn't have water, because we wouldn't have done those things if we did."

Surrey County Council declared a major incident in November 2023 when Storm Ciaran left thousands of homes without water or with low pressure.

Thames Water apologised at the time, saying its Shalford treatment works in Guildford had technical issues caused by the storm.

The utility company said it has paid compensation to 19,000 households and businesses in the Guildford area who were affected by the storm.

The company said it was aware that customers in Milford and Farncombe had raised concerns about their eligibility for compensation.

It said in a statement: "Our water interruption team carried out robust modelling and calculations, in line with industry guidelines, which showed that many properties in these villages were not interrupted for a full 12-hour period."

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