Amersham Road closed as Thames Water fix burst pipe

Fran McLeod from Hazlemere was angered to find a water leak “left running” for a month despite residents’ efforts to report it to Thames Water.

She reported the “bubbling” leak on Amersham Road A404 near Hazlemere Library to the water company in September on two occasions, each time queuing for 40 minutes on the phone line.

Ms McLeod said: “I was told it had a priority, and it was treated as emergency.

“I was told it was only reported by one other party, and it was a day before. But today a friend told me lots of other people had reported it.

"They’re making all sorts of water loss the public’s responsibility.

"It’s a major leak that needs to be fixed immediately.

"It’s unacceptable!”

The burst pipe on Amersham Road (Credit: Fran McLeod) (Image: Fran McLeod)

Thames Water confirmed they received a first report of the leak on September 8 and engineers “attended on the same day to assess.”

A spokesperson for Thames Water said: “We are aware of a leak on Amersham Road, near Hazlemere Library, and can confirm repair work will start on Tuesday 11 October.

“Our teams identified that this was a complex repair as the burst pipe supplies water to multiple properties.

"Our engineers attended again on both the 13 September and 5 October to decide on the best way to undertake the repair work, whilst ensuring we keep customers taps flowing.

"We have now gained permission from the local authority to use two-way traffic lights whilst engineers work to fix the pipe.

“We know it’s not acceptable to be losing so much precious water and we aim to complete the repairs tomorrow [October 11], reinstating the road by the end of the week. We would like to apologise to local people and motorists for any inconvenience caused.”

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Ms McLeod had enough when she saw the leak “running particularly fast” last Wednesday.

She said: “The water is bubbling up continuously from the pothole.

“Absolutely ridiculous.

“They’ve been in trouble for poor service delivery.

“I wanted to give them a chance, and said if it’s not fixed by Monday I’ll go to the press.”

Water companies in the UK leak more than 3,000 million litres of water daily – equivalent of 1,245 Olympic swimming pools per day, research by Water UK showed.

Thames Water leaked the most water per day out of all 20 water providers in England and Wales.

The company leaked 20 cubic metres of water per day on average per kilometre of mains in 2020-2021, a significantly higher rate than the next wors leak company Affinity with 11 cubic metres leaked, Water UK figures revealed. 

A partial road closure with temporary two-way traffic lights will be in place on Tuesday (October 11) as Thames Water fixes the leak, but residents are warned that full re-opening of the road may take a few days, Thames Water spokesperson said.