By Anthony Segaert
A broken pipe that left a Manly grandmother unable to safely access her car for almost a fortnight has been fixed after the Herald reported on the matter.
A significant section of Malvern Avenue, two blocks behind Queenscliff Beach in Sydney’s north, had been under water for 12 days, after a broken pipe located at a nearby block of flats burst.
There is relief for Jane Hester, who had a huge puddle outside her home for weeks. Credit: Ben Symons
But on Thursday night, after the Herald’s story of the saga had been published, Sydney Water attended to the site and the leak has been temporarily fixed.
Sydney Water said the fix was a gesture of goodwill because it did not hold responsibility for the site, given it was on private land. A plumber will attend the site to find a permanent fix on Monday.
Jane Hester, 84, contacted the Herald after her complaints to Northern Beaches Council and Sydney Water went ignored for days.
“There’s an emergency and no one takes any notice at all,” she said on Thursday morning. “When someone pulls up to take me somewhere, I can’t get into the car [because the pavement is covered in water]. I have to have help getting across the gap.”
The root that started it all, pictured on Friday afternoon.Credit: Jane Hester
But by Friday morning, things had improved.
“I go sketching on Fridays, and it was Christmas lunch today,” she said. “So I took some crackers that I’d made up, and I saw that there wasn’t much water coming down. It looked as though someone had dug a trench just up from me a bit wider than it had been. I walked up a bit and there was so much less water, and it wasn’t running down the road.”
Sydney Water said it had contacted the apartment body corporate, where the original leak had occurred, twice, but had not heard back. Crews yesterday put in a temporary service to reduce the impact of the leak, while giving time for the body corporate to fix the problem.
Hester reported that a large tree trunk was next to the source of the gushing hole, and she suspected the Norfolk pine’s roots had got into the pipe.
The flow of water from up the street made it hard for the Manly resident to get to her car.Credit: Ben Symons
By lunchtime on Friday, someone else had returned to the site to put down sand and soil to keep things in place.
A spokesperson for Northern Beaches Council said on Thursday it had offered to assist with the protection of the trees while the work was completed.
“What a saga,” the 84-year-old resident said. “The schemozzle that we had to make to get the goodwill [to fix it] … I just couldn’t believe they weren’t going to do something.
“I went to get the bus today and I didn’t have to leap over a puddle to get across the road. I’m so grateful to reporters of this world.”
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