FRUSTRATED Weston residents have hit out at claims that their water supply is safe, and believe some homes in the village at risk from contamination have not even been tested.

Two weeks ago, North West Water announced that it would be taking samples from homes in Weston to establish whether hexachlorobutadiene had contaminated the village's water supply.

A statement issued by the incident team declared that homes with plastic pipes had already been identified and owners would receive a letter to arrange a time for testing to take place.

But Weston Residents Action Group spokesman, Bryan Johnson claims this was not the case.

He fears HCBD could be seeping into the water supply of properties which have not yet been included in the testing programme.

He said: "My property has plastic pipes and all I received was a leaflet. I had to ring up myself and arrange for testing. There are a lot more homes with plastic pipes which haven't been tested.

"To hear that they were testing water in the first place came as a surprise to residents. As soon as we think things are settling down, something else happens.

"I struggled to arrange a test in my home, because my property wasn't on their list, and the general feeling here is that people are disappointed with the way North West Water operated.

"We want to know why our homes weren't even included on the testing programme. People around here have got enough to worry about already without feeling like we are being ignored."

The decision to include water in the investigations was made after Halton Borough Council's incident team was advised to check supplies by the chemical incident response service.

Officials from the water authority carried out tests at 46 properties which were known to have plastic pipes on the recommendation of the Chemical Incident Response Unit following suggestions that HCBD could pass through the material.

A spokesperson for the council's incident team said: "Following the distribution of the leaflet about water sampling which explained to householders how to check for plastic pipes, eight further properties were identified for water sampling.

"Towards the end of last week, additional householders in the green and blue zones notified us that they too had plastic pipes and so arrangements are now being made with North West Water from sampling to take place in those properties.

"North West Water has advised us that it is unlikely that any HCBD will be detected above the WHO guideline level for lifetime exposure of 0.6 parts per billion.

"To date, no trace of HCBD has been detected in tap water from 44 out of the 46 properties sampled. HCBD was found in samples from two properties, but at very low levels, well below the WHO guideline."

Customers with further questions or concerns can contact the incident team on 0151 471 7367.

"The communication pipes in question belong to the householder and so, unless any repair or replacement work is carried out by North West Water and therefore kept on record there is no requirement on the part of the householder to notify them of any changes.

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