Published at 10:33, Saturday, 24 July 2010

UNITED Utilities have confirmed plans to rejuvenate a town’s water supply.

A kilometre-long stretch of pipe connecting Millom to the regional network will be replaced to improve reliability and help cut down on leakages.

The pipe’s owners, United Utilities, said the renewal will not only improve the quality of service to customers, but also the reliability of it.

The pipe currently runs across the railway viaduct at Foxfield but has to be moved due to environmental and access reasons.

Instead the company is considering “directional drilling” which would allow the pipe to be laid beneath the estuary. The work is due to take place in the current financial year, although Polly Rourke, spokeswoman for United Utilities in Cumbria, said no date will be set until environmental assessments are complete.

She said: “The scheme is worth about £150,000 and is in our programme for the current financial year. I can't be specific about when it will start just yet, until we have analysed the results of our survey work.”

Ms Rourke added: “We are planning to replace the 250mm-diameter water main which supplies Millom. It has burst on a few occasions in the past and we want to improve its reliability for local people. This main is one of the main supplies into Millom, serving about 5,000 homes and businesses.”

Ms Rourke said customers needn’t worry about being left high and dry as the main feeds into a storage reservoir in Millom, which provides relief for the supply network at peak times.

United Utilities claim residents are unaffected by problems with the current pipe but Stephen Wearing of Glebe Farm, Ladyhall, told the Evening Mail earlier this month he has frequently seen the pipeline leaking.

He said: “Down there is really wet, the pipe is always leaking.”

Ms Rourke said the new section will prevent this happening in the future.

She said: “However we decide to renew the pipe, the work will mean that people in Millom get a much more secure and reliable supply of water and there will be fewer leaks.”

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk