To think that Thames Water should not bring a bloody great digger and start digging up the road at 9.30 at night

[margoandjerry]

Apparently they will be there till 1am because the illegal cafe at the corner of the street has no water. The cafe incidentally has no planning permission or licence to serve food. But apparently this crappy business is entitled to destroy everyone's evening and get the road shut and cars towed away so that Thames Water can dig up the road.

We had no water at my daughter's school for two days before Christmas and we had to send packed lunches and the children washed their hands with wipes (toilets were flushed with buckets) but that wasn't deemed an emergency...

If they were flushing the loos with buckets they must have had on site water somewhere? Or was it a tank thing?

YABU. It's not Thames Water's fault the cafe is crap. They have a customer in emergency need and they're sorting it. YOu would want the road dug up for you wouldn't you? I jolly well would!

God forbid someone doesn't get their over priced plate of grease.

I wouldn't expect the road dug up for me in the middle of the night, no. We had no water at my office for a day last year and we just went to Sainsburys for drinking water and popped to a local dept store for toilets! The water came back on the next day without an entire street being kept awake just for our benefit. That was my point about the school - they just got on with it and again the street was not dug up in the middle of the night (I know because the school is opposite my house).

An illegal cafe that can't serve it's customers for a couple of hours on a Wednesday evening is suddenly an emergency that is more important than a whole street's entitlement to go to sleep? I don't understand that. FWIW it's a shisha bar which is a cafe for the serving of shisha pipe. Understandably many people don't know what that is if they don't live in an area where they have shisha bars. But basically it's a makeshift cafe that's been set up in travel agents - no licence to operate at all, no licence to serve food, no planning permission etc etc. That's an added irritation but I'd think the same if it was my neighbour who couldn't flush her toilet. One night without running water is not going to kill anyone is it?

oh god. it's customers.

You see - this is damaging my mental faculties

Boo*hoo @ packed lunches - oh the inconvenience rolls eyes

If you are so certain it is illegal, why not ring environmental health, and complain about the noise at the same time..

What difference does it make if its an illegal cafe?

I doubt its an issue for one property alone anyway!

They started digging at 8pm on xmas eve outside my old house one year. if its an emergency its an emergency.

If it affected your home wouldnt you want it fixed as soon as possible?

I had gas men digging with a generator running all night once right outside my childrens bedroom window!

Shit happens.

why the sarkyness over packed lunches? My point was that the school just got on with it. Everyone on the PTA just got emails saying please bring in ten rounds of sandwiches each, immediately, and they parcelled them out.

Anyway, I'm obviously the outlier here. I just don't think it's an emergency. Emergency is life-threatening, not mild bore for people wanting to use cafe. And yes of course the cafe has been reported, loads of times. It has several enforcement notices against it. But the Council don't have the money to take them to court and get it shut down for good. In my area illegal shisha bars are a real problem but without the money for court action, the Council has basically decided they are fighting a losing battle.

I reckon it's more likely that they aren't allowed to work in the highway during the day, so have no choice but to do it in the evening. I'd call & complain if it's that bad. The water companies are heavily monitored on complaints & how they deal with them so it might help.

Well they're obviously paying their water rates so it's not for Thames Water to decide they won't come out.

Also, I doubt only one business has been affected

Thames Water just called me and told me they do informally prioritise restaurants over other businesses and over a normal home who could go without for a night so although they can't strictly speaking take into account the fact that it's illegal, it did help them make the decision to stop drilling tonight (that and all the other calls they've had ).

We had to endure this on new years eve new years eve before last. They started digging entire sections of road and getting people to shift their cars about which meant we couldn't drink. Then turned the water supply off and the digger racket woke every child up in the house and me and then dp had a huge row and we both stormed off to bed,

The water board didn't look too thrilled to be there but I'm sure their wages made up for it!

I thought there were laws against excessive noise near houses at night? It's why the local Tesco Express has to close at 12 despite being a garage and cannot have any tanker deliveries past a certain hour, as there's an old people's home next door.

Um, why does it make any difference that it's a shisha bar? As opposed to, say, a greasy spoon? Just asking...

If no flushing /running water quite simple my child not be in school .

But if mine goes of overnight I would expect them to be out ther digging it up tyvm

I think it's that it's illegal, ATruth. It just happens to be a shisha bar. Without the required permissions.

I am sure the OP would be equally miffed if it was an illegal greasy spoon, or chippy.

Although I must confess that I don't think I'd care if a place had the right bit of paper or not. If they were being really noisy, yes. If they were being rude, yes. If it was disrupting day to day life, yes.

But then I don't live in an area that has them, so have no idea what it is about them that's a problem

How do you know for sure that it's only the cafe without water?

I could have snogged the workmen who turned up last Sunday evening to dig up the road and get our water back on - but there were only about 6 or 7 houses in 3 roads that the problem affected. Including us.