Just how long is a piece of string? (Water connection questions)

[Stewpot]

Solicitor has informed me that the searches show a public water main about 25 meters away. Anybody any idea how much it's going to cost to bring water onto the site? A ball park figure, obviously - just something to give me an idea.

 

Secondly - a condition of the PP says:

 

Quote

No development shall commence until a report, by a suitably qualified person, has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Planning Authority, demonstrating the provision of an adequate water supply to the development in terms of quality, quantity and the impacts of this proposed supply on surrounding supplies or properties.

 

Is this a standard thing? Is the paperwork involved in getting the water connection done going to include something suitable, or have I actually got to commission a 'suitable qualified person' to say "That's mains water, that is"? And can I get the water connection made before development is deemed to have begun (ie. before reserved matters are approved)?

 

[Ferdinand]

I think you  may need to also confirm that they will be willing to connect as you wish.

[Stewpot]

2 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

I think you  may need to also confirm that they will be willing to connect as you wish.

 

As my old boss used to say - "All in the fullness of time".

 

I'm not anticipating a problem (why would there be?) - five other houses in the area, all on mains water; it'll just need extending the extra bit.

[Jeremy Harris]

39 minutes ago, Stewpot said:

 

As my old boss used to say - "All in the fullness of time".

 

I'm not anticipating a problem (why would there be?) - five other houses in the area, all on mains water; it'll just need extending the extra bit.

 

 

Our plot is infill, with houses behind us and to either side, as well as over the other side of the lane.  All have mains water and a mains water pipe, that supplies our neighbours on either side, runs along the lane in front of our plot.

 

Could we get a mains water connection at a reasonable price?  Simple answer is no, Wessex Water declared that the pipe running along our lane was a communication pipe, not a water main, and they prohibit new connections to an existing communication pipe.  Their solution? Dig up over 100m of lane and lay a new communication pipe alongside the existing one, so that it could connect to the water main at the top of the lane.  Cheapest price to do this? About £24k. . .

 

Our solution?  Poke a metaphorical two fingers at Wessex Water and have a borehole drilled in the garden.  Cost about £8k.  Definitely worth it at the time, as cash was tight during the build.

 

TBH it's not ideal, though, as although we have a plentiful supply of cheap water, there is a maintenance overhead involved with having a private water supply.  This was fine when we made the decision about 6 years ago, but as we get older we do find we think a bit harder about stuff that needs regular maintenance.  Changing filters, checking and re-charging the pre-charge on accumulators, replacing the UV disinfection tube every year and keeping an eye on the overall health of the system isn't that onerous, but there may come a time when doing it gets a bit hard.  We're beginning to think about getting a mains water connection again, and luckily I laid an extra run of water pipe to the boundary just in case we decided to do this, so it just (!) means getting the lane dug up.

[Stewpot]

I'm beginning to think I misunderstood the phone conversation I had with Scottish Water a few weeks ago. They simply said it'll cost so much to make the connection[1], but they don't dig the trench, and pointed me to approved contractors who do. Are you suggesting that, come the day, they might refuse to make the connection? I suppose I was really after a guestimate of how much a contractor might charge to dig up 25 meters of lane. And clarification of the planning condition.

 

[1] I wrote it down - it's under this pile of paper somewhere.

[Jeremy Harris]

Scottish Water may be different, as you've not suffered as much up there as we have with the way the water companies here are stitching up consumers in whatever way they can.  Wessex Water didn't even know about the pipe in our lane when we first contacted them  It was only after they confirmed (via their check before you dig service) to us that they had no pipes at all in the area, and we then discovered their pipe when trenching across the lane for a drain, that they decided that the pipe in our lane was theirs, but we couldn't connect to it.  The pipe in question was laid in 1934, and is well overdue for replacement.  My belief is that as soon as they realised this they decided that we should pay to have their pipe replaced, to save them having to pay to maintain it.

[ProDave]

Although I found Scottish water hard to deal with, and their local inspector was the biggest jobs worth I have met, I did find their pricing attractive.  Having given us a "connection" cost, I then requested an "all works" cost, and to my pleasant surprise that got me the road crossing for £1000, about half what anyone else had quoted.