One of the largest employers in Cornwall has recovered more than £61,000 from a water leak, following a two-and-half-year ownership battle.
Vikki Wilkins, Energy Management Technician, at Cornwall Council, said she spent months trying to recuperate the money after discovering the leak at Falmouth Adult Education Centre.
She is now urging businesses across the UK not to back down when it comes to recovering money from their water supplier. She said:
The TEAM Sigma software alerted us to the fact that we were spending £5,000 per month on water charges at the centre, considerably more than normal. We narrowed it down to a water leak and have spent more than 18-months trying to recover the charges for the supplier.
She added:
They claimed it was our responsibility because the leak was on our side of the water meter but after investigating, we found that it was, in fact, on their side of the boundary.
Cornwall Council began working with TEAM Bureau (Outsourced Bill Validation Service) in 2011. Vikki said:
The council’s energy management team consists of just myself and I don’t have time to go through and check hundreds of utility bills every month. The council required someone with the skills and capacity like TEAM, to provide an outsourced bill validation and cost recovery service, which would allow be to concentrate on other energy projects.
She added:
TEAM alerted me to the change in consumption data and without them I wouldn’t have had time to keep chasing the water supplier to recuperate this money. It definitely pays to be persistent and I would urge other businesses to keep fighting for what is owed to them.