Complaints over Scottish Water turn into a torrent

"GETTING answers or action from Scottish Water has now become practically impossible and we are now dealing with a series of cases from Fife to the Borders where farmers continue to suffer from poor workmanship of Scottish Water and poor communication within the company and contractors four years after the original works took place."

That assessment of the workings of the organisation was given this week by land agent Daniel Smith who, along with his colleague Kenny Robertson, is now handling a number of claims and complaints over deficiencies in the water supply framework from their office near Bathgate.

Smith said the majority of cases involved burst water mains with consequential flooding of farm land. Such problems often take weeks to repair, he said. What was making matters worse with this type of complaint, he said, was there was often a history of such bursts.

His conclusion on the present situation was an unequivocal "farmers, members of the public and land agents appear to be getting an extremely poor service from Scottish Water".

After raising the issue of Scottish Water at a meeting of the Scottish Agricultural Arbiters and Valuers Association, Kenny Robertson has been asked to collate information on the scale of the problem for the professional body.

"I have already received details of more than a dozen cases in various parts of Scotland. Some of these go back two three or even four years. It appears as if the staff of Scottish Water have disappeared."

Robertson said some of the language used by land agents showed the high level of frustration they were experiencing through lack of any dialogue with Scottish Water.

He quoted from one Lanarkshire based company which stated that it took 12 phone calls before they received a response from Scottish Water.

Another from a Kirkcudbright land agent talked of "inefficiency and poor quality of supervision of contracts linked to a marked deterioration in service."

Both Robertson and Smith attended an open meeting with the chairman of Scottish Water last week and received verbal assurances from executive level that outstanding cases would be dealt with, but as of yesterday there was little sign of any action. Robertson remained optimistic that matters would be taken in hand: "We were asked to have faith in these assurances and I am prepared to go with that until it is proven that I was wrong to put my faith in the senior management of SW."

Yesterday, a spokesman for Scottish Water said they were in dialogue with the SAAVA and had received details of the issues.

"We take these matters very seriously and are reviewing the issues raised.

"We have also a meeting planned with SAAVA next month to continue the dialogue, move things forward and hopefully find solutions to the issues raised."