Water supplies restored in Mill Hill - Are we entitled to compensation

Many families in Edgware and Mill Hill had a nightmare day yesterday. We awoke to find that there was no water. For some of us this simply meant no shower or cup of tea, but for many it caused a massive problem. Schools closed down as toilets ran dry. For parents with young children this meant working arrangements were disrupted and other plans abandoned. This blog had over 1,000 hits from google searches of people trying to find out what was going on.

We posted a link to the affinity water site detailing the problem - https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/where-we-are-working.aspx?wID=1817 - so that readers could keep up to date with regular updates. It seems the problem was finally fixed at 17.40, although low pressure and water discolouration persisted for a while. Here is the last update.

Water Supply Problems - N12 Finchley, WD6 Borehamwood, HA8 Harrow, NW7 Mill Hill, EN5 Enfield (click here for more info) - 06/10/2014

Update 17:40
Our technicians have now repaired the main and will now begin to recharge the network in the area. Pressure will gradually increase to normal throughout late afternoon and into the evening and supplies are now being restored in some areas.
When your supply is restored, you may notice some slight discolouration or cloudiness to the water. If you experience this, simply run your kitchen cold water tap until the water clears.
We would like to thank you for your patience whilst we carried out this essential repair.
Our technicians have now repaired the main and are working to restore your supply. Pressure will gradually increase to normal throughout late afternoon and into the evening.

Given the huge disruption and inconvenience caused, one would hope that Affinity water would give affected customers some sort of rebate. One has to presume that given that there wasn't  a huge meteorite strike on the water main affected, the problem was caused by them not maintaining their network properly. It seems strange to me that so large an area can be affected by a single broken pipe, you'd think that they'd build a degree of resilience into their network. We get charged through the nose for services and if we don't pay our bills, the companies are only too quick to cut us off or call in the bailiffhttps://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9215006984353817373#editor/target=post;postID=7860141216468423494s. When they fail to deliver, surely we should be entitled to some sort of rebate. In our case we had to make an emergency trip to the shops to buy bottles of water, simply to have a cup of tea.

I will be emailing my MP as follows

I am writing with regards to the water supply issues in Mill Hill. Many families were inconvenienced. My daughter was unable to attend school at Mill Hill County High, disrupting her A Level studies. Whilst we all understand that such things happen from time to time, it strikes me that Affinity water had no adequate contingency plans. Surely bottled water should be delivered to affected households, to at least allow people to clean teeth and make a cup of tea? For many working and travel arrangements had to be changed as childcare issues needed addressing.

I believe that as Affinity water failed to provide a service, affected households are due a rebate on our water bills. Can I ask you as my MP to address this issue. If there is a mechanism for claiming compensation, please can you let me know and I will publicise it via my blog. FYI I had over 1,000 hits on the site yesterday from people doing google searches on “low water pressure in Mill Hill”. To me this indicated that Affinity water were doing a lousy job getting the message over. They should have done an emergency leaflet drop informing vulnerable people as to how to deal with the situation.

I suggest you do the same. For residents of the Hendon Borough email matthew.offord.mp@parliament.uk