Anger as boil notices cancelled

Thousands have been advised to boil their water before drinking

A water firm dealing with a bug in supplies has been criticised by customers for removing a boil water notice and then reinstating it.

Welsh Water originally told 45,000 customers in Bangor - and parts of Anglesey - to boil their water after cryptosporidium was discovered.

Some Bangor residents were then told boiling was unnecessary, but two days later told it was.

Welsh Water confirmed a mistake had been made and later corrected.

Cryptosporidium causes gastro-intestinal illness with diarrhoea or sickness.

Six cases of a stomach illness were confirmed after customers in north Wales were asked to boil their water at the end of August.

The first notice for customers in Bangor to boil all drinking water was sent out on 30 August.

Then a letter was sent out on 4 September telling some customers "your property is NOT supplied from Mynydd Llandegai water treatment works, and therefore you do not need to boil your water".

Mr Murrell said the situation was "ludicrous"

On 6 September, the same customers then received a letter stating: "You may have mistakenly received an All Clear Notice... if you have please ignore it and continue to Boil Your Water".

One of those affected has reacted angrily to what he described as the "incompetence" of the water firm.

"First we got a letter (from Welsh Water) telling us to boil our water, then another telling us not to, then yet another one saying there had been a mistake and we should still boil," said Bill Murrell from Bangor.

Mr Murrell said he was angry that the company did not seem to know which properties were affected.

Statement

"I think it's gross incompetence on the part of the water company," he said.

"I've been drinking the water and now I'm going to the toilet more than usual, so I might have picked something up.

"They would have been better off leaving the boil water notice in place to make sure, because they're paying out the £25 compensation anyway," he added.

In a statement, Welsh Water said a small number of customers had been given the wrong information at the beginning.

In remedying this, a "small number" of postcodes were "incorrectly" removed from the list of properties affected, said the firm.

This included three properties in Garth Road, Bangor, which included Mr Murrell, the company said.

"Having recognised this error we hand delivered letters confirming that these customers should boil their water as instructed in the original notice," it added.