The attached PDF is a copy of a letter to the Customer Services Director of United Utilities following several complaints by email and on social networks related to the numbers and frequency of disruption to the water supply provided by the Utility.
If a response is received then it will be published here.
Utkinton and Cotebrook Community Website 
Having moved to the area 4weeks ago it’s been a bit disconcerting that the amount of water outages that have occurred.
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We’ve moved to Utkinton a few months ago and it is disappointing to see how often we have issues with the water supply. On many occasions it’s yellow/brownish colour which makes me check every morning what colour it is! I’ve been taking photos but it’s not possible to attach it here. I’m not sure if the water is safe to drink/use. We are worried it also may affect our boiler.
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Hello Kasia, where in Utkinton do you live? Not all of the village/parish has exactly the same supply, for example, we live on Tirley lane and rarely get yellow/brownish water, but sometimes it is slow and looks Cloudy. We got this from UU: Occasionally after an interruption, water can be a different colour for a couple of reasons:
1. It may look milky or cloudy. This is just tiny air bubbles in the water, there is nothing to worry about, you don’t need to do anything to clear this, it’s safe to use, and will clear naturally in time.
2. It could look discoloured. Sometimes naturally occurring deposits in the pipe, can be disturbed as the water is turned back on. This can make it look light yellow to dark brown.
You can clear the problem, by running the cold water tap that’s closest to your internal stop tap, just above a trickle. This may take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, why not collect this water and use it to water your plants? If you’re on a meter, don’t worry, that’s less than 5 pence.
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My email is utkintonpc@gmail.com and I’m Chair of the Parish Council (for what that might be worth)
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The length of time we have now been without drinking water is an utter disgrace. The original issue was first reported on Friday, it is now Tuesday afternoon and we are still unable to use the water in our taps !.
United Utilities have certainly got a lot to answer for this time and it is clear that there are still a lot of fellow parish residents being affected by this ongoing issue.
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Thank you Jason for your comment. This website https://www.ccwater.org.uk/ is the official channel for complaints, it is an industry wide body and it asks if residents or users have complained in writing (see this page https://www.ccwater.org.uk/make-a-complaint/water-or-sewerage-compaint/ ). Although we, as a Parish Council have written to UU direct, we are not a customer of UU and whilst our complaint should carry some weight, I believe we will get a standard response. There are a number of residents who have been ‘vociferous’ on line (‘nextdoor’, Facebook etc. ) but if they (we ) haven’t complained directly to the Utility, then I doubt we will get heard. It might be worth asking those other residents to write to UU individually and possibly as a group.
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