A RETIRED salesman has called a water company's delay in fixing a leaking pipe "ridiculous" after more than a month of waiting and three visits by engineers.
Roderick Davey, 69, of Rose Hill, Braintree, notified Anglian Water of the leak that led to water pouring down the hill outside his house nearly six weeks ago.
But the company has still not resolved the problem, despite sending three engineers to inspect the faulty pipe.
The grandfather-of-three said: "Water has been running down the hill for at least six weeks. We're lucky it's not winter otherwise it could have been really dangerous on the hill as it is just before a roundabout. Cars could have been skidding all over the place.
"Three engineers have been to look at the pipe, but all they've done is hang a sign up saying 'we love every drop', which is a joke if they can't even be bothered to stop water running down the hill.
"It must cost them a lot of money to send out people to it and not fix the problem."
Anglian Water says the hedge is part of the property boundary of nearby flats and so falls under the responsibility of management company Acorn Property to cut it back.
A spokesman for Anglian Water said: "We are sorry for the delay in repairing the leak on Rose Hill in Braintree. The private hedge nearby needed to be cut back before we could start work. As this is classed as private property it's not something we can do without permission.
"Now that this has happened, the repair is scheduled to be completed within the next week.
"No customers are off water or experiencing low pressure, but we are sorry for the delay and are grateful to those customers who have conscientiously reported it to us."
