Thames Water has been slammed over claims a water pipe bursts outside a Bexley McDonald’s “every three weeks”.

It was one of a number of local criticisms aimed at the utility company which was also hit with complaints of unsolved leaks and responding with “nonsense” when concerns have been raised.

Thames Water fielded questions at Tuesday night’s Places and Overview Scrutiny Committee, where Bexley councillors grilled the firm over issues raised by residents.

The company’s Head of London Water System Planning, Simon Moore, answered questions virtually.

Councillor for Crayford Geraldene Lucia-Hennis spoke about a problem with pipes in her ward.

She said: “First of all, obviously I would like to speak about Crayford seeing as you brought it up.

"You put all this nice pipework in 2016 but I would like to point out at least every three weeks we still get a burst main down outside McDonald’s outside the town hall site.

“It alternates between fresh water and sewerage but it’s still happening literally on a weekly basis, so whatever you done, I’m sorry, was not good enough.”

Mr Moore acknowledged that there may be a “performance issue” and said Thames Water would have to check it had their system operation correct.

Cllr Nigel Betts also had questions concerning his ward of Welling, where he says the infrastructure is “exceedingly leaky”.

He claimed it led to residents asking him regularly “what on Earth are Thames Water doing?”

He said: “The disappointing thing is when these things are investigated, Thames Water seem to say ‘ah, it’s nothing to do with us.

"It’s underground springs and all that sort of thing’ … it seems to be a certain kind of nonsense and perhaps you might wish to comment on this misinformation we keep getting given as ward councillors.”

Cllr Betts added he had also received complaints about the amount of mess Thames Water employees leave behind after they are finished with a job.

Cllr Lucia-Hennis agreed and said it was “appalling”.

Mr Moore said he couldn’t directly influence the issue but added: “It’s very disappointing to hear that because there are very much standards we expect our teams to work to.

“We have a number of different contractors who work for Thames Water, we don’t have any direct labour in that regard, but all of them are expected to work to the same standard.

"So we will take that away and talk to the head of region and make sure that message is emphasised to his teams.”

Cllr June Slaughter lambasted the water firm on the “amount of time it takes to deal with leaks” and said, from her experience, it doesn’t take weeks but months.

She added that residents get “very cross” when they see water leaks running on public roads for “weeks and months on end”.

Mr Moore apologised for this and added: “If we’re not responding in a sensible time scale, that really isn’t good enough. So we have to hold our hands up if we’re getting that wrong.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service attempted to contact McDonald’s for comment, but could not reach a representative.

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