Mick Farrant lives in Gospel Oak

A GOSPEL Oak resident has said he has been left devastated with worry after being told by Thames Water he had used 72,000 litres of water, the equivalent of 900 baths, in a matter of days.

Mick Farrant, who lives in Oak Village, said his wife had first realised the error when she checked the bill at the end of last month. It showed that in the last nine days of the month they had used 47 times the amount of water they normally would, about 8,000 litres, the same as 100 baths every day.

They rang Thames Water who said that it would stop adding the amount on to the account while it investigated, but that costs would be added on to their next bill.

Mr Farrant said: “I ended up having to go and lie on the street to try and read this meter, which is difficult for a start. They said there must have been a leak, but you would know when there’s 8,000 litres of water a day leaking, you can’t hide that, and there was nothing.”

The 80-year-old, who is the former chair of nearby Queen’s Crescent Community Association and head of governors at the now-closed Carlton Primary School said: “They didn’t seem to know what had caused it. I spent hours on the phone being passed back and forth from pillar to post. They are trying to make us pay for it, and the size of the potential bill is catastrophic.

“We are vulnerable customers, age 74 and 80, and devastated by the possible size of the bill and attitude of Thames Water staff. We need to know that we won’t have to pay, compensation and assurance this will never happen again.”

He pointed out that people are unable to change water suppliers, so is concerned he will end up experiencing the same problem and poor customer service again.

Mr Farrant checks for leaks – there wasn’t one

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “Our customer team has spoken with Mr Farrant directly and we’re sorry for the issues he’s experiencing with his water meter. We’ve explained to [him] that we can transmit meter readings.

“We can see on the device that from 22/09/2022 to 01/10/2022 the average daily usage for the property was recording between 6,000 to 8,000 litres per day. However, it decreased to 265 litres a day between 1/10/2022 to 02/10/2022.

“We’re going to continue to monitor the meter. By then the meter will show if there still remains a problem or if the meter is just recording the customer’s usage.

“In that time, we’ll confirm whether a repair to fix a leak or to the meter has been carried out. However, if there wasn’t a repair we’ll need to send the meter away for testing.

“If we confirm there has been an issue with the meter and there are no further problems with it then we will adjust the customer’s bills accordingly.”