Crawley
Board Legend
Down here in the gateway to the south, our water/sewerage is split between Thames Water (for the brick) and Southern Water for.....the water.
So, last year, the bills were roughly ?ú140 each..........................then in November, Southern installed, without warning, meters for everyone, saying...."it's much fairer and more cost effective".
So today Southern sent me a pre-warning type bill type thingy, which told me how much water my household had used since Nov 2011 according to their new meters.
They have calculated that my first HALF-YEARLY bill (for water alone) will amount to ?ú223 and will be due shortly. They went on to say that at current usage, this means my YEARLY bill will be ?ú446.
They also told me that my household is averaging 1106 litres of water per day, where the average water usage is 150 litres per person.
Now, we are a family of four. We are not a third-world country all living in a three-bed terraced house.
I work 12 hour shifts, and am out all day. The missus works mon-fri and is out from 8.30 till 6. The kids are both at school, so are out mon-fri.
We shower, rather than bath, so call that an average of once per day per person. The washing machine averages once per day. I never wash my car at home. We do not have a dish-washer etc etc etc
Just to rub salt into the wounds, Southern water also told me, or reminded me, that had we not gone on a meter, my bill would have been ?ú140 for the year. So that's pretty much a quadroupling of my charges.
I will be taking this up with Southern once i have calmed down, but does this sound a bloody rip-off to anyone else out there?
So, last year, the bills were roughly ?ú140 each..........................then in November, Southern installed, without warning, meters for everyone, saying...."it's much fairer and more cost effective".
So today Southern sent me a pre-warning type bill type thingy, which told me how much water my household had used since Nov 2011 according to their new meters.
They have calculated that my first HALF-YEARLY bill (for water alone) will amount to ?ú223 and will be due shortly. They went on to say that at current usage, this means my YEARLY bill will be ?ú446.
They also told me that my household is averaging 1106 litres of water per day, where the average water usage is 150 litres per person.
Now, we are a family of four. We are not a third-world country all living in a three-bed terraced house.
I work 12 hour shifts, and am out all day. The missus works mon-fri and is out from 8.30 till 6. The kids are both at school, so are out mon-fri.
We shower, rather than bath, so call that an average of once per day per person. The washing machine averages once per day. I never wash my car at home. We do not have a dish-washer etc etc etc
Just to rub salt into the wounds, Southern water also told me, or reminded me, that had we not gone on a meter, my bill would have been ?ú140 for the year. So that's pretty much a quadroupling of my charges.
I will be taking this up with Southern once i have calmed down, but does this sound a bloody rip-off to anyone else out there?