I have been in touch with Southern Water and asked them to explain why it is that we had so many burst water mains in Totton, Eling and Marchwood last month. These caused a massive amount of disruption with thousands of motorists affected.

I am finding it very hard to understand how it is that an “over pressure” event can happen repeatedly over several days.

I have received an acknowledgment and a holding explanation which suggests that “it is complicated”. However, I have a promise that they will return to me with a more detailed answer as soon as possible.

The key thing is to ensure that we don’t have a similar thing happen again. Was it in part due to poor infrastructure ? Was it human error ? Was the hot dry weather in the summer a contributing factor? So many questions… I will keep you posted.