No one wanted to fix this broken pipe outside Jane’s home – but now there’s some good news
A broken pipe which left a Manly grandmother unable to safely access her car for almost a fortnight has been fixed after the Herald reported on the issue.
A significant section of Malvern Avenue, two blocks behind Queenscliff Beach in Sydney’s north, had been underwater 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 to 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.”
