United Utilities may face mass legal action over Cumbria floods

Last updated at 08:51, Friday, 18 December 2009
 

A Cumbrian law firm is preparing to mount what lawyers expect will become a mass legal action against United Utilities over last month’s floods in Cockermouth and parts of Keswick.

Workington-based KJ Commons & Co is acting for a small group of people who believe they have a valid claim.

The law firm has now set up a website aimed at other potential claimants.

The action has come to light as fresh details about the role of United Utilities in the hours before, during and after the floods have been revealed.

There is growing pressure on the firm to provide improved flood protection measures for the communities living in the areas affected, though the firm insists it did nothing wrong.

Campaigners want the firm to ensure water levels at Thirlmere are kept to three meters below the reservoir wall. They say this would leave room for the huge volumes of extra water brought by periods of heavy rain.

United Utilities chief executive Philip Green has revealed new details about events on November 19 in a letter to Workington MP Tony Cunningham.

He confirmed that Thirlmere had been overflowing since October 27.

The letter says there was a landslip into the reservoir on November 19.

After consulting with the Environment Agency, the firm closed off water abstraction via the reservoir’s aqueduct on November 20 in order to protect drinking water, adding 220 million litres per day to the reservoir’s volume.

In the House of Lords last month, Keswick peer Lord Dale Campbell-Savours urged United Utilities to put Thirlmere at the heart of flood alleviation.

He call for “an end to United Utilities resisting reductions in water levels on the dam in high rainfall periods; and an end to the delay in the funding of flood protection measures on west Cumbria rivers, in particular the Greta in Keswick.”

The peer added: “The people of Keswick are fed up with the dithering of United Utilities, which defends the Thirlmere water assets for its shareholders while it is the people of Keswick and west Cumbria who are paying the price.”

United Utilities said the flooding result from “unprecedented rainfall levels – a once-in-1,000 years incident – and not because of Thirlmere reservoir”.

A spokesman added: “The provision of safe, clean drinking water, balanced with a responsible contribution to flood protection measures have been and remain our top priorities and we have not compromised on either of these objectives before, during, or in the aftermath of the recent flooding in Cumbria.

“United Utilities has a defined operating policy for controlling the water levels at Thirlmere Reservoir, specifically to help with flood protection measures.

“This policy has been agreed with partners such as the Environment Agency (and has involved the Keswick Flood Action Group).

“The daily management at Thirlmere has been in line with the agreed procedure during this exceptionally challenging period."

Marcus Nickson, from KJ Commons & Co, said the firm is now investigating the role of United Utilities.

He added: “A lot of the people affected were uninsured and are facing a terrible situation. We felt we had to do something.”

Tony Cunningham said: “Lessons can always be learned and there needs to be a full inquiry, but the general feeling is that nothing could have stopped this.”

First published at 08:50, Friday, 18 December 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk