The Green Party has called for action on leaks from water pipes following a string of complaints from residents.
Gleadless Valley Councillor Alexi Dimond received calls from residents about water leaks on Gleadless Road, Durham Road and Bankwood Road.
Councillor Dimond said,
“As if polluting our rivers wasn’t bad enough, we have a leaky water system at a time when we have a hose pipe ban.
“ Yorkshire Water’s reservoirs are currently 42% full which is a big drop from the same time last year. The national average for reservoirs is 67.7% full. I fully support the hosepipe ban but I wonder if it would be necessary if the proper investment had been made to our leaky infrastructure in Yorkshire.
“Yorkshire Water has paid out £7.6 Billion in dividends since privatisation in 1989. This is all money that should have been spent on our antiquated water and sewage systems. When asked why our bills are going up Yorkshire water tells us that it is to pay for an £8.3 Billion investment to upgrade infrastructure across the region. Clearly if the money from our bills had gone into improving our water pipes and sewage systems, then we would not have the dirty rivers and leakages that we have today.
The Green Party is calling for a £12 Billion Infrastructure Fund for our water and sewage systems and is calling on the Government to nationalise our water industry.
“We are one of the very few countries in the world that has a privatised water industry and to make matters worse over 70% of our water companies are foreign owned and Yorkshire Water itself is 50% owned by a Hong Kong based Investment FIrm and over a third owned by the Singapore Government. Their interests will be to maximise the profits of their shareholders not to invest what is needed in our water system. It is time the Government abandoned this failed and discredited privatisation experiment and brought our water industry back into public ownership.
