So Thames Water spokesperson Stuart White tells us ‘Trying to Keep Head Above Water, October 18’ that the reporting of the plight of Mandy Blessing, Gary Noall, and others, whose lives have been torn apart by the burst main in Normandy Crescent, “was unhelpful”. Unhelpful to whom?

Presumably Thames Water, owned since 2006 by an Australian-based global corporation, far removed from Mrs Blessing or Mr Noall. Mr White goes on to say that what happened at Normandy Crescent “was horrendous”. He might like to ask why those who have been obliged to abandon their homes must incur severe financial hardship when it would easily be within the remit of the highly profitable Thames Water, with the blessing of the regulator Ofwat, to meet people’s extra costs now and not months away.

As for Oxford City Council telling Mrs Blessing that she and her husband are “now classed as having a second home” and so must continue to pay council tax on their abandoned Normandy Crescent home because it is not “classed as ‘empty’”, it is within the council’s remit to petition the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for exceptional circumstances and so dismiss demands for council tax on homes which are uninhabitable due to water damage. While this should be done immediately, Gary Noall despairingly notes that “They can’t compensate you for the stress and your health”.

Thames Water and Oxford City Council should not, however, be adding to that stress for a moment longer.

Bruce Ross-Smith Bowness Avenue Headington

Today’s letters

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