Ongoing water issues leave businesses fuming in heat

Residents and businesses who have been complaining of low water pressure and breaks in supply since January, have become increasingly frustrated during the recent hot weather.

Communities near St Ives, Cornwall including Carbis Bay, Halsetown and Nancledra have been affected since January, and the issues have continued as tourists flock to the area for half-term with several days having temperatures higher than 20C.

A holiday park had to shut off its showers and close its kitchen for several hours, while a pub had to turn away dozens of hungry customers.

South West Water (SWW) said it was "sorry for the disruption" and it hoped to have "upgrades to the network in the area in place by June".

Becky Osborne, owner of Polmanter Holiday Park which has had about 1,000 guests staying in recent days, said: "We had either low pressure or no water several times over the hot bank holiday weekend and it's been really frustrating.

"After a day at the beach, people just want to have a shower and at the moment we can't guarantee that.

"Our biggest anxiety is if we have prolonged outages we'll have no toilets and that means closing the site and sending everyone home.

"We pay around £30,000 a year for our water and the communication from South West Water has been really poor, we get no warning when the water goes."

Darren Biggs is the landlord of The Engine Inn in the village of Nancledra, and said: "I had 40 bookings on Sunday and 20 on Monday and I had to call all of them when the water went off.

"I reckon it's cost me over £4,000 in one weekend and that's just not sustainable for a small business like mine.

"We pay around £800 a month for water and this just isn't good enough. When there's no water we have to close the pub because there's no toilets - I've had to get some portable toilets installed in the garden."

In a statement SWW said: "We're sorry for the disruption some customers around the St Ives area have experienced and understand the impact on homes and businesses.

"We are carrying out improvements across the local network, including upgrades to the Steeple service reservoir, which we hope to be fully operational by June, and enhancements to Towednack pumping station, which is due to be completed by the end of May.

"There are also upgrades planned to other parts of the network in the long term, to improve the water pressure reliability and reduce water outages.

"We'll continue to keep the community updated as this work progresses."

Andrew George, MP for St Ives, he said: "South West Water seems unconcerned that this is yet another feather in their cap of shame.

"This isn't the first time residents and businesses in this area have been hit by water cut offs and low pressure: South West Water knew there was a weakness in the system and failed to act."

George added SWW managers had agreed to attend a public meeting in the coming weeks.

Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.