Thames Water has insisted that it is working to improve its service standards in London, but is refusing to sign up to a 10-point action plan drawn up by six of the capital’s boroughs.
The beleaguered company claims it already has procedures in place to meet almost all the demands in the charter drawn up by Westminster City Council together with Islington, Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea, Camden and Wandsworth.
‘We feel we are meeting most of these points already,’ said a spokeswoman, although she added that the company was still considering the feasibility of setting up an accessible public online log of all known leaks in its system – one of the improvements urged by the councils.
The water company, which has consistently failed to meet targets to reduce leakages, has hit the headlines again over plans to cuts up to one-quarter of its 6,000 staff, but it is more conciliatory on some of the charter points than on others.
On the councils’ demand that major mains bursts be tackled immediately and minor leaks within seven days, it maintains that in many cases, it is meeting its own target to fix leaks within five days of them being reported. It has sought meetings with officers in every borough to discuss how to improve response times.
Thames also defends its record of supporting considerate contractor schemes.
Urged to pay boroughs to inspect 60% of its street works – double the usual proportion – it concedes that the normal 30% sample might be increased ‘where performance is an issue’.
Westminster City Council slapped its first improvement notice on Thames earlier this year, partly for failing to notify the authority of the need for road closures and parking suspensions.
Despite some improvements, the notice was extended for a further three months, giving the company until the end of September to raise the standard of its reinstatements.