A TOTAL pay out of between £30,000 and £40,000 has been made to residents and businesses in Okehampton following mains water work which went 'seriously wrong' in April.

Five hundred properties on the east side of the town were informed their water would be switched off but almost double that number found themselves without water on April 6.

Chris White, customer liaison officer for South West Water contractors John Kennedy, explained that technical problems meant many had to wait up to eight hours longer then scheduled to get their water supply back.

'Our biggest concern was for the hospital,' he said. 'We were aware that the hospital did dialysis and so we took containers of water down during the night and first thing in the morning.

'We had a bowser standing by but fortunately the supply was back on before it was needed.'

More than 100 calls were received by SWW on the night from local people affected. Businesses were paid compensation of £50 and residential properties £20.

Mr White said the water company felt the system had been fitted differently to what it had been led to believe.

But with the pipes being so old it was not unusual to hit some problems he said.

'It was a major exercise — things went serious wrong on the night,' he said. 'But it was nobody's fault — with pipes in the ground that were laid 75 years ago they can be difficult to work out and the paperwork is not necessarily around anymore.'

He said it was 'a complete team effort from top to toe to put things right'.

Further mains work on the west side of the town will take place between June 5 and 9 and June 27 and 30.

Mr White told a

chamber of trade meeting recently that it would involve turning the water supply off in the area of Fore Street, Market Street and up towards Oaklands.

A number of excavations would take place outside the White Hart Hotel and in West Bridge Close but discussions were taking place to ensure the mains work and cable laying by Cable and Wireless did not clash.

The liaison officer said his firm had split the work up so it was not excavating in Okehampton when special town events were taking place.

John Kennedy and South West Water were praised by chamber chairman Ian Bailey for fully informing the town what was happening at all times.

Cable and Wireless had been invited to come along to the meeting to talk about their eight-week cable laying work from Fowley Cross to the Exeter Road Industrial Estate but declined saying it was 'against company policy'.

In last week's edition of the Times, chamber member Derek Godfrey-Brown said the works by Cable and Wireless at the start of the tourist season would be 'disastrous for the town'.