Water, water everywhere - but not for residents of a sheltered housing complex who have been banned from using a laundry tap to water their plants.

They have been told that because the tap is attached to a water meter, they must not use it any more - and if they do, the laundry could be closed down.

Infirm and disabled residents, some as old as 90, now have to heave buckets of water around the Lawns Court complex in The Lawns, Benfleet, to water their prized plants.

Resident Pat Roast is furious because the tap, which was only recently put on a meter, had been used by the residents for more than ten years.

In a letter Jacqui Lansley, the council's housing needs officer, told residents: "I have been advised by this council's maintenance department that all water at Lawns Court is now metered."

"In view of this, I do not feel it reasonable for this council to pay the cost of all the water used by all the residents of Lawns Court to water their own individual gardens."

In another letter, Miss Lansley said: "If this continues I may have no option but to close the laundry."

Published Friday August 9, 2002

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