York homeowner in stopcock row with Yorkshire Water

Mike Laycock said he wanted to warn other customers that the water company had quietly decided last year to stop repairing or replacing its stopcocks outside people’s homes, except in an emergency.

The former veteran chief reporter at The Press, 65, of Fishergate, said the change in policy was going to end up costing him personally more than £100.

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But Yorkshire Water has said it is not responsible for stop taps located on private property and will only take action to rectify issues with stop taps in the highway or pavement if there is an urgent risk to health such as no water to the property or serious internal leak.

Mike said he only discovered the change by chance after his pipes started vibrating and making an annoying noise whenever he put on a hot tap for more than a few minutes.

Mike Laycock examining his stopcock (Image: Supplied)

“I called in my regular plumber. He went in the loft and said a valve needed changing in the supply from the cold tank to the hot tank, but he just needed to turn off the cold water supply to be able to do the work," he said.

“He went to turn off the internal stop tap in the kitchen, only to find it had seized up and couldn’t be turned off.

“He said that was no problem; he could fix the stop tap but first he would need to isolate the water supply from the mains to the house by turning off the external stopcock.

“He opened a small metal lid in the pavement outside and put his hand down to turn off the tap. However, that didn’t work either: it was just spinning round and round and unable to isolate the supply.

“I rang Yorkshire Water to tell them about the problem, expecting them to say they would come and fix it.

“I was surprised and disappointed when they said that even though the stopcock was their asset, they wouldn’t come out and fix it unless it was an emergency, such as flooding or a loss of water supply.

“A man said the company used to carry out such repairs as a ‘goodwill gesture’ but it was not legally obliged to do the work.

“He said that Yorkshire Water decided last year not to do such work any more, so it could divert resources to other matters.

“He stressed that the stopcock was Yorkshire Water’s asset and no one else could repair it.

“He said it was my responsibility to repair the stop tap inside the house.

“However when I asked how that repair could be done without flooding the kitchen, if the external supply could not first be isolated, he had no answer.

“I’m not terribly happy that it’s going to cost me more than £100 extra in hire and labour charges to do that additional work, compared to being simply able to turn off the stopcock.”

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said: “Unfortunately, we are not able to send out technicians to locate or work on external stop taps due to time and resource constraints. This is to allow us to better manage the responses we are responsible for, such as leaks on our network. If customers encounter any problems with their stop tap, we advise them to contact WaterSafe (03332079030 or info@watersafe.org.uk) who can provide a list of WRAS approved plumbers who would be able to help.”