Outrage as mobile home residents offered £1.32 refund for three day water outage

Emily Price

Residents of a mobile home site have been left “outraged” after being offered just £1.32 each in compensation for a three-day water outage.

The outage, caused by a major pipe burst between the 14th and 17th August, left thousands of homes across Flintshire without running water.

Most households received compensation payments of between £200 and £250.

However, because Willow Park’s mobile homes are supplied through a single shared connection, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water treated the entire community as a single customer account and issued just one payment of £210 for the whole park.

The site in Mancot is made up of 159 single and double units and is home to many retirees living on fixed incomes.

When divided, the refund received by residents amounted to £1.32 per household for three days without water.

A Welsh Water spokesperson said: “We did compensate account holders that were affected by the supply disruption.

“While we sympathise with the residents, we provide a single supply to the site.

“The billing agreement and supply arrangements is a private matter for the landlord and tenants.”

Cllr Sam Swash, who represents Hawarden & Mancot on Flintshire County Council, says the situation exposes “serious flaws” in how water customers on single-supply sites are treated across Wales.

He said: “People across Flintshire received proper compensation for three days without running water.

“Yet Welsh Water believes residents on Willow Park are worth just £1.32 for the exact same hardship.

“Their compensation offer is scandalous, insulting, and utterly indefensible  – and it exposes a system that treats single-supply sites as second-class customers.”

Concerns

The dispute comes against a wider backdrop of long-standing concerns about the site’s water infrastructure which led to residents launching a Senedd petition earlier this year demanding a legal right to water meters.

Residents at the park are being charged over £68 a month for water, far exceeding the national average of £39.42.

This is because the site has a single water meter and the site owner divides the total bill equally among all 159 homes, regardless of individual usage.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water says although it appreciates the concerns of the residents on sites such as Willow Park – the issue is between residents and their landlord.

The petition for the legal right to have a water meter installed is currently under consideration by the Senedd Petitions Committee.

Leaks

Those living on the Willow Park site have also been campaigning for years for action on leaking pipes.

The Residents’ Association has estimated that the community has collectively paid more than £350,000 for water lost through leaks  – water they never used and could not control.

Cllr Swash says the case highlights a structural issue rather than an isolated incident.

“This is not the first time that residents of Willow Park have been disadvantaged by Ofwat’s rules,” he said.

“The current recharging regulations allow people to be billed for water lost through leaks and then ensure they are not compensated properly when an outage occurs.

“It is a regulatory failure, and it cannot continue.”

Compensation

He is now calling on Ofwat to urgently review the regulations governing recharging and compensation for single-supply sites, arguing that the system is no longer fit for purpose.

Residents say they want parity with other households across Wales, and for both Welsh Water and the regulator to correct what they describe as “an obvious injustice.”

An Ofwat spokesperson said: “We appreciate the concerns raised by park home residents and fully understand the frustration this situation has caused.

“Whilst Ofwat sets maximum prices, we do not have powers to resolve disputes regarding the resale of water, as these are considered to be a private matter.

“The UK and Welsh Governments will shortly publish a white paper ahead of plans to legislate for water reform across Wales and England.

“This presents an opportunity to amend existing legislation to better protect customers and ensure fairer outcomes.

“We will continue to engage with the Welsh Government and stakeholders to highlight these issues and support improvements that benefit all customers.”