Yeh!; we have water on site

We have achieved a milestone in the development of the site; our water supply is connected. It might not sound like much of an achievement but it has been a lot of work as the mains supply is about 200 meters away from where we need to water.

We opted to do this work ourselves (I say 'ourselves' but I mean by our friend Mike and his trusty digger) leaving Thames Water to just connect up to the 2 meters at the edge of the road. Guess which element was the most hassle? Thats right; Thames Water.  All went well through the survey and quotation stages but when the contractor came to dig the hole and do the connection they couldnt find the piple.  So they filled the hole in and went away.  After a certain amount of irrate phone calls, they came back, dug a bigger hole but still couldnt find the pipe and filled it in again. (this time it took them a full day to fill it in as they had to repair the edge of the tarmac). Then the next day they came back and dug 90% of the way accross the road; still no pipe. Of course, it was under that last 10% of tarmac but why finish a job if you can make it last another day!!  Eventually, after a full week we had water.

We still dont have planning permission but as water counts as a basic agricultural requirement it has not been an issue for us to do this and it feels really good to have some progress.