Water firm United Utilities has hit back after farmers condemned its £300 million project to lay a pipeline from Thirlmere to West Cumbria via Keswick as a “shambles.”
More than 20 local farmers and landowners affected by the 100km pipeline project took part in a survey which uncovered a long list of complaints over poor work, years of delay and dysfunctional communication.
Work began in 2017 on the five-year project to provide water to homes and businesses in West Cumbria after the Environment Agency ordered its current supply from Ennerdale to come to an end.
Since then, large areas of farmland across the North Lakes have been fenced off and excavated along the path of the pipeline, which comes into Keswick and out along Bassenthwaite Lake north towards Bothel before heading west.
Now, local farmers and landowners have joined together to protest about the problems they have suffered during the works and to say they fear their land will suffer long-term damage.
Val Edmondson, who farms land at Millbeck, near Keswick, said: “We were promised the earth at the initial consultation meetings. United Utilities have simply not delivered.”
Colleague Roger Swales was even more critical, dismissing the works as “a complete shambles — dysfunctional and unorganised”.
“The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” he said.
The survey was arranged by local landowner James Spedding, who is based at Mirehouse on the A591 where the pipeline passes.
He says it showed a large majority who were strongly dissatisfied with how United Utilities had carried out the works so far, with particularly strong condemnation of communications from the company, its poor handling of topsoil and the damage done to land drains.
John Helme, of Ormathwaite Farm, near Bassenthwaite, said: “The soil is unrecognisable from the soil structure before work. The recent reinstatement of my land is a complete shambles. The land is now infested with weeds.”
Greg Nicholson, of Causeway Foot Farm, outside Keswick, said: “Reinstatement is appalling in terms of drainage, replacement of topsoil, reseeding and the rebuilding of walls.”
Their complaints were supported by Ian Bowness, NFU Cumbria county chairman, who has first-hand experience of the pipeline works crossing his land.
He said farmers are not going to let the matter drop.
“People are extremely angry about how this project has been mishandled.
“Farmers feel they have been completely ignored or forgotten. We strongly believe that public authorities have failed to properly oversee the works and that it is time for them to ‘step up to the plate’,” he said.
However, United Utilities issued a statement in response to the survey in which it stressed that the project was not due to finish for another two years. John Hilton, project manager, said: “We haven’t finished the reinstatement.
“The works to date are interim measures within a multi-year project.
“There are stretches of the pipeline where we will need to maintain ongoing access throughout the commissioning phase of the project — and this will not be complete until 2022.
“It’s for this reason that we have only done some basic reinstatement so far to help prevent soil erosion.
“We will continue to liaise on an individual basis with the landowners.
“We are making interim compensation payments to cover temporary losses while the land is unavailable and we will ensure the final reinstatement is completed to a high standard.”
Last month, United Utilities had said its pipeline project was on schedule to be completed by 2022 despite disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic and extreme weather, including flooding.
