Frustration over week-long flood from leak on Maidenhead road

A leak in Cookham Road has left residents frustrated as water has been ‘gushing non-stop’ onto the pavement and road for more than a week without repair.

The leak was first spotted by a concerned resident Naomi Canton on Sunday, May 4.

It stems from a dislodged manhole cover outside The Spens apartment blocks, opposite St Joseph’s Parish Church, the resident says.

The manhole and leaking water are the responsibility of South East Water.

Naomi, who has made repeated attempts to get the issue resolved, said she first reported it via the company’s emergency line the day she spotted it.

At that time, she was told the problem had already been assessed and that a repair was pending.

However, further calls to South East Water revealed conflicting information.

The next day, Naomi called again was told that there was a delay due to a need for traffic control measures to be arranged by the council before work could begin.

But when they called again on May 9, the company reportedly said the site still needed to be assessed – despite having purportedly already been inspected a few days ago.

“The leak is still there, with water running all over the pavement,” Naomi said.

“I find it incredible that in a week or more South East Water has still not come out to fix it. This is causing a tremendous wastage of water as it’s gushing out non-stop, 24/7.”

Online incident reports show one leak recorded on this stretch of Cookham Road, a little further north near Clivemont Road – about 10 minutes’ walk away from the leak Naomi spotted.

The latest update on the South East Water website for this leak was recorded on May 9.

It says: “We are aware of a reported leak at this location which has been allocated to reference number 64164738.

“At South East Water, Every Drop Counts, and we take leakage seriously.”

In a statement to the Advertiser, Paul Mann, South East Water's regional network manager, said:

"We know it's frustrating seeing any water being lost, and we are sorry to customers in the Cookham Road area of Maidenhead for the leak in their area.

"Our technicians have already visited to identify the fault, and we are currently scheduling the necessary repairs. 

"Finding and fixing leaks and saving water is one of our top priorities, so we would like to thank customers who took the time to report this leak to us.

"We're sorry for the disruption this has caused and will work as quickly as we can to complete the repairs.”

Customers can keep up-to-date by visiting southeastwater.co.uk or report a leak using aqualerter.southeastwater.co.uk/report-a-leak