A FIGHT to win compensation for people across Monmouthshire who lost their vital water supply for several days over Christmas has been taken up by local councillors.

Councillor for Mitchel Troy and Trellech United, Cllr Richard John and Cllr Jayne McKenna, have written to the chief executive of Welsh Water, Peter Perry, to ask the company to undertake a more thorough review of compensation payments made to residents affected by the loss of service.

They say is has emerged that many households across the Wye Valley either received no compensation at all, or significantly less than the £70 per day that they were expecting.

The issue was caused by a burst trunk water main on Friday December 23 which initially affected around 1,500 properties in the area.

Welsh Water engineers worked around the clock to repair the damage and subsequently repressurise the system and while many hundreds of properties were reconnected within a day or so, some properties were not reconnected until December 27.

Cllr Jayne McKenna said: “We absolutely recognise the complexity involved in repairing the water main and are grateful to Welsh Water engineers who worked all over Christmas to reconnect residents in villages outside Monmouth and across the Wye Valley.

“Some residents were left without water all over Christmas and were forced to cancel visits from friends and family.

‘‘While we were pleased to be able to help distribute emergency water supplies during the outage, many residents still had the inconvenience of travelling to the Premier Inn in Monmouth to collect water.

“This was a lonely and distressing time for many and it’s right that residents should receive the full compensation payments they deserve.”

Cllr Richard John added, “There are lessons for Welsh Water to learn from this experience and to be fair, I think they recognise this, but the priority right now should be to ensure that residents are fairly compensated for the loss of water over Christmas.

“Some residents across our area, including Mitchel Troy, Penallt, The Narth, Catbrook, Far Hill, Cwmcarvan and Trellech have not received the compensation they are due or in some cases have not received anything at all.

“We have raised some individual examples with Welsh Water and hope that they will be able to do a thorough review of compensation payments to ensure everyone receives what they are due.”

For anyone who wants to join Welsh Water’s priority service register because of mobility issues or other issues that might prevent them from going out to get bottled water in a future loss of service, they can register at: https://contact.dwrcymru.com/en/priority-services-register

Residents in the Mitchel Troy and Trellech United ward can contact their councillors by email at [email protected] and [email protected]