DESPITE several promises to fix leaks, Thurrock Council continues to flush money down the drain at the borough's town hall.

Since the beginning of March, when Nub News editor Neil Speight literally spotted a drain on the authority's resources, the council has failed to fix leaks that will have cost hundreds of pounds.

Urinals in the gents' toilets at the town hall have been running constantly, 24/7, since at least the beginning of March rather than working as an occasional flushing mechanism.

The fault was initially on one urinal, first spotted in February, but then a second began to leak.

The problem was reported to the council's security and maintenance team at the town hall early in March but nothing was done.

The water continued to flow into April when we took a measure of the rate of flow and found the two urinals were losing a litre of water every 40 seconds – around 2,000 litres a day. 

We gave further notification to the council of the issue and on Thursday, 2 April we received the following response: "We are aware on the issue and have booked a plumber to make a repair. In the meantime, the urinals are perfectly useable and remain open to members of the public that use the public areas of the council's civic offices."

Attending the raising of the flag of St George at the town hall today (Wednesday, 23 April), Mr Speight checked to see if the water has stopped flowing. It hasn't.

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Mr Speight said: "In a way this sums up the council's attitude to solving problems. As a Yorkshireman I'm a believer in looking after the pennies and letting the pounds take care of themselves but the council seems oblivious to that concept.

"Mind you, they seem oblivious to any financial responsibility – borrowing £1 million a week to service the ever accruing debt and agreeing a budget they know will need topping up aby at least £17 million.

"Clearly fixing a leak in a toilet isn't going to solve debts of that magnitude but it's symptomatic of the lack of care and carelessness when it comes to making achievable savings. It may only amount to a few quid a day but they literally are flushing our money down the toilet!"