THE parish of St Peter is facing a bill of up to £250,000 for roof repairs and work following a major water leak at a housing development.
Having already been forced to budget £160,000 for repairs to the roof at Maison Le Marquand, the parish recently became aware of the leak when its water bill doubled.
Constable Richard Vibert said that although there had been no outward sign of damage, the leak had worsened and reached more than 1.6 litres per minute, the equivalent of around 200,000 litres per quarter.
At a parish assembly this week, attendees voted in favour of withdrawing an initial £60,000 from contingency funds to cover work to replace water pipes at the development, which was built in 1977 and has 15 affordable housing units.
Mr Vibert said: ‘We needed to bring this to an assembly in order to get on with the work.
‘There are no external signs of any subsidence or damage, and a surveyor who spoke at the meeting said that the area has very good drainage.’
The Constable said that the initial estimate for work to replace external pipes was £60,000, but admitted that the total cost, when added to the £160,000 roof repair bill, could approach £250,000.
Work to replace the piping is expected to begin shortly, and Mr Vibert said he hoped there would be minimal disruption to residents.
The problems at Maison Le Marquand follow a case that was reported in July, when St Peter officials revealed that the parish had been affected by a bank mis-selling scandal.
A £3.5m loan from a major UK high-street bank to build the Clos Le Ruez sheltered homes in 2011 was linked to a fixed interest rate deal that Mr Vibert subsequently estimated had cost the parish hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional interest.
The parish was looking at the possibility of mitigation over outstanding fees, he said.
