Anglian Water attend Parish Council meeting

Anglian Water (AW) at Stutton Parish Council meeting Monday 10th August 2026

Following the burst water main near the school on the 9th July 26 and the resultant road closure of the B1080 through Stutton Anglian Water (AW) agreed to send representatives to the August Parish Council meeting on the evening of Monday the 10th. Mark Pryke and Darren Corby from Anglian Water Network Services were joined by Ellie Colby, a Flood Investigations Manager of Suffolk County Council. As well as Parish Councillors the County Councillor Vicky Armstrong was present and 27 villagers were in the audience. Most of the villagers had been affected in some way by both this water mains burst but also previous occurrence and some in very significant ways. A lively and often passionate session of questions from the audience and Councillors followed the presentations from the officials. What follows is a summary of the main points discussed.

The water system

AW gave a summary of essentially how our water system works and how pressures are monitored 24/7. Technology is being installed to provide an “intelligent” response to changes in pressure. If pressure drops because of usage by customers the system increases the pressure but if it has dropped due to a significant leak, increasing the pressure makes matters worse. New technology should address this. AW spoke of the reliance on what they referred to as the “Spine Main” which runs through Stutton under the road from The Drift, past the School, past the Kings Head and then turning right into Bentley Lane, past the Almshouses and heads North out of the Parish. This Spine Main dates back to the 1950’s and the actual pipe is referred to as AC which stands for Asbestos Cement. Although the naturally occurring silicate material Asbestos is often linked to health issues these pipes are common and are not known to present medical problems. However, operatives do wear masks when cutting such pipes due to dust being created. Because the AC pipes are strong and resistant to corrosion they have proved reliable but of course they are now some 70 years old and are due for replacement. Because they are rigid they can be susceptible to ground movement.  When the pipes fail it can be because of a break around the circumference of the pipe, a longitudinal split or a general collapse. AW pointed out that because uncovering the pipes which are leaking inevitably causes disturbance, it is often impossible to actually determine the nature of the broken pipe.

The mains bursts

AW referred to four significant mains bursts in Stutton in recent years. This most recent one outside the school on 9th July 2026, the burst near the Kings Head in November 2025, one in Bentley Lane near the Almshouse in June 2021 and again near the Kings Head in March 2021. All four of these incidents have been put down to failure of the old AC pipes.

Reconnecting water supplies

AW described how their first response to any incident is always centred around safety and limiting damage. Clearly, when the incident is on a road there has to be a priority to make the road safe and in many cases an emergency closure is the only option and then the priority shifts to isolating and stemming the leak and re-establishing water supplies to customers. In the latest incident water supply was restored to the majority of their customers within the target 3 hours but some houses close to the burst took longer. AW use different techniques to restore supply including a tanker full of water with its own pump to provide a temporary reservoir until full connection to the mains system can be made. In the latest case most customers were back to normal supplies on the mains system within 12 hours (when monetary compensation is awarded to customers) and the leaking pipe had been repaired.

Road closures and re-opening

AW referred to the “Red Book” on road closures which by law must be complied with. This includes minimum widths which must be available for people working on repairs which can mean that a full closure is the only option and single file traffic light controlled systems are not possible. They also pointed out that when there has been a water leak the road surface can be undermined by the water several metres away from the actual leak. Re-instatement is therefore often over a much bigger area than the original excavation to find and mend the leak. AW maintained that they do appreciate the significant impact that full road closure has on a village such as Stutton and will do everything they can to avoid it. They also maintain that although safety cannot be compromised they prioritise the re-opening and return to normality. However, Anglian Water accepted that the road should have been repaired and re-opened quicker than the 8 days it actually took. Whilst they could not be specific they agreed with the suggestion that the road should have been reopened in half of that time. They apologised for this. Pressed on the reasons for the delay AW cited problems with the supply chain and contractor availability but accepted they should have done better.

Road diversions

AW pointed out that official diversions can only use roads of the same class or higher resulting in them being lengthy. This is to prevent larger vehicles using unsuitable roads. However, they acknowledged that during the recent closure in July, with a combination of local knowledge and sat nav’s many vehicles used the backroads to get past the obstruction. They were pressed on whether advanced signs of a road closure ahead could have crucial information such as where the closure is and the distance ahead and they agreed that will be explored. AW maintained that emergency services are ALL made aware of all road diversions and could not comment on a report of an emergency ambulance being unaware of the diversion. AW did acknowledge and apologised for the fact that because the diversion required in July clashed with another diversion this caused a delay in getting the correct signage in place.

Priority of replacement of spine main.

AW stated that at the time of the incident in November 2025 they had locally reached the conclusion that the number of failures and the consequences had reached the stage where they were recommending to the “board” that the spine main should be prioritised for replacement. They estimated that this length of 1.7km of piping with five side roads and 105 properties would cost in the region of £1M. This means the board will consider this alongside other areas in the Anglian Water region for the allocation of capital investment. AW pointed out that if and when this project is given priority then in their experience, because of the detailed planning involved, it would be likely to be two years before work actually started.

The future – making Stutton a priority

AW were asked how Stutton could make its case to be a priority for replacement of the old pipes. AW responded by saying that holding them to account, asking them to attend meetings, letters to the Chief Executive from our County Councillor (all things which have been done) would all help and we should continue with the same approach.

The future – managing further incidents

In discussion AW agreed there should be more communication between them and the community. In the event of an incident the person in charge of the operation should be in regular (daily) contact with a single Parish Councillor. This contact should be by a combination of site meetings, telephone and email to allow the council to be kept up to date with progress on restoring water supply, road closures, diversion signage and anticipated events such as projected road opening dates. The nominated Councillor would then be able to keep as many people as possible informed using its website, notice boards and informal systems. The Parish Council made it clear this regular contact would also be used to allow the Council to keep the pressure on AW to progress resolving the incident and return to normality in the quickest possible way.

NOTE ON THE CONTENTS OF THIS SUMMARY:  THE PARISH COUNCIL ACCEPTS THAT THIS IS ONLY A SUMMARY OF THE MEETING AND IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A VERBATIM REPORT. IF YOU ASKED QUESTIONS OR MADE COMMENTS WHICH YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY IN THIS SUMMARY WE APOLOGISE BUT NEVERTHELESS, WE ARE REALLY GRATEFUL TO THOSE WHO WERE ABLE TO ATTEND