WATER has been continuously leaking at an allotment site in Andover, forcing the council to turn off the supply after receiving a high water bill. 

Andover Town Council became aware of the issue at The Drove Allotment site after receiving the high water bill.

It took a metre reading on September 11 which showed "a considerable amount" of water was leaking at the site and being continuously used while no tenants were there. 

Subsequent readings were taken to try and ascertain how much water was being lost, which showed "significant usage", resulting in the council deciding to turn off the water supply to stop the wastage while it investigated the matter. 

Councillors have now agreed to find an alternative way of changing the water network to resolve the issue. 

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Andover Town Council discussed the water leak at The Drove Allotment site at a town council meeting on September 20 and debated whether to repair part or all of the network. 

Cllr Ted Reynolds, vice chairman of the Allotments Committee, brought the findings to the town council and said the readings showed "a considerable amount of water had been used, despite there not being many tenants on site that day". 

He added: "Again the following day a metre reading was taken which showed significant usage."

Cllr Reynolds added that installing new pipework was guaranteed to last 50 years underground.

He said: "We could make a small fix now, but in the process of doing so, create more damage to the network which will result in more needing to be replaced. If we did a full fix now, it's done, it will last and I expect it would also be more cost-effective."

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Cllr Mark Farren said: "For me, replacing the whole network now seems like the best option and we should be spending our money to prevent the need for this to be done in the near future."

Cllr Katherine Bird said: "It would be foolish for us to suggest alternatives to rectify this issue without knowing how water pipes and the network would work. As soon as we start tampering or patching the network, we will cause more issues, so I absolutely agree with replacing it in one go.

"If it's been there for a long time with no attention, then I think our best bet would be to obtain a cost to update the whole water network on the site."

A proposal was made by Cllr Stu Waue for the town clerk to look into replacing the whole of the water network at The Drove Allotment site, which was approved by the council, with 10 councillors voting in favour of the proposal.