Water pipe row rages as supplies return

Residents left with little or no water after a pipe burst and road collapsed have accused Thames Water of ignoring problems in the area for months.

Water supplies have now been returned to properties in Kidmore Road, Caversham Heights in Berkshire after initially 25 homes were affected.

One resident said the water firm had failed to communicate enough over previous complaints.

But Thames Water, which blamed the burst pipe on ground movement, said it looked into a sewer blockage in November while reports of a leak a month later proved to be a false alarm.

Resident Alex told BBC News she first reported "water running down the road" in November.

"I've got a lot of [reference] numbers for them from my phone calls," she said.

"They never came and looked, each time they said they would ring me to meet me there but nobody rung me, so, I couldn't show them the leak."

Fellow resident Louise Lee, who said she also reported a leak, added: "Don't let anybody tell you that this has come as a shock, it hasn't."

But Thames Water responded to say it attended the area in November and concluded a leak from a sewer overflow manhole was due to heavy rainfall and a blockage.

"The issues were resolved a couple of days later," it said.

The company said it visited again in December following reports of a leak, but an inspection of the pipework found nothing.

A spokesperson said: "We are sorry to those who have been impacted by a burst water main... caused by movement in the ground which has left a hole in the road and damaged the pipe.

"Our teams have installed additional pipework which has returned water supply to all the affected properties, while we carry out repair work."

Ward councillor Isobel Ballsdon said: "I think the main concern is for the residents closest to the hole.

"Back in 2016 there was a sinkhole very close by, around the corner in Sandcroft which happened just before Christmas and it took over a year for the hole in the road to be repaired."

The north end of Kidmore Road remains closed.

You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X , or Instagram.