F****** Thames Water

The most incompetant company I have ever met. Just had a phone call to say the 900mm main which supplies the local town,population 100, 000 plus has blown for the 3rd time this year, 9th time in the 17 years since installation. It runs half a mile across 4 fields of mine. Neighbour has it across 3 small fields and I believe it has blown 17 times!!
3 years ago when it blew 5 times in the year I e-mailed the CEO and had maybe hastened the start of the 1200mm replacement which started 2 years ago in March. They did very little for 6 months beside on site meetings, installed the first field before Christmas last year, had all the pipes joined by Feb for the 2 mile section and then spent the summer rewelding all the joints! The section they had buried they had to reinstall!
By the end of this evening I may have used my father favorite expression which used to make me cringe. "you're like a pregnant prostitute! You don't know your f***ing job" I now know what drove him to use it.

Rant over, off to take pictures before they re create the Somme!
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
its ok i just got this off npower, im not even their customer meter number and npan number not mine either which begs the question why the f**k would they send it to me tossers...

all utilities should be government owned
 

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Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
The most incompetant company I have ever met. Just had a phone call to say the 900mm main which supplies the local town,population 100, 000 plus has blown for the 3rd time this year, 9th time in the 17 years since installation. It runs half a mile across 4 fields of mine. Neighbour has it across 3 small fields and I believe it has blown 17 times!!
3 years ago when it blew 5 times in the year I e-mailed the CEO and had maybe hastened the start of the 1200mm replacement which started 2 years ago in March. They did very little for 6 months beside on site meetings, installed the first field before Christmas last year, had all the pipes joined by Feb for the 2 mile section and then spent the summer rewelding all the joints! The section they had buried they had to reinstall!
By the end of this evening I may have used my father favorite expression which used to make me cringe. "you're like a pregnant prostitute! You don't know your f***ing job" I now know what drove him to use it.

Rant over, off to take pictures before they re create the Somme!
We had a water main go through a few years ago, they do like to make as much mess as possible, I hope you have a good agent working for you that they should pay for,
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
The decision makers in these big companies are too far removed from the coal face of an unreliable part of the network, plus they are hamstrung by budgets & clever graduates working their way to the top by "saving" a few quid on not replacing these pipes but ignoring the repair costs. "Not my department, mate."
They have money allocated for repairs but not for replacement
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
The decision makers in these big companies are too far removed from the coal face of an unreliable part of the network, plus they are hamstrung by budgets & clever graduates working their way to the top by "saving" a few quid on not replacing these pipes but ignoring the repair costs. "Not my department, mate."
They have money allocated for repairs but not for replacement
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
They have to repair them - even they know it is ruinous to let a leak go on for a long time. A good land agent will fight your corner for compensation. At the water company's expense.
 

SRRC

Member
Location
West Somerset
Have you considered a move to Scotland? Comrade Nicolai Krankie is doing her best to nationalise all land up there
View attachment 838471
My remark was ironic, which I'm sure you spotted.
Nationalising farms makes as much sense as nationalising utilities.
There wasn't some sort of idyll in some unspecified past where publically owned utilities were perfect.
 
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DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I have northern power grid hovering around wanting to replace a mile or so of 11kv line across our fields. They can't tell me when they might start of course, so planning cultivations to help avoid a mess isn't really possible. A bit of foresight and cooperation could save everybody thousands but it doesn't happen. No doubt they have a planning department but can't even give any idea of what time of the year the work will start. I sometimes wonder how they manage to run a business at all. They have been three times already. Firstly with the helicopter, then a bloke in a car having a look around and soon they are going to "walk the line". Anything but get on with it, which will probably come out of the blue 3 weeks before harvest.

Then there is the water meter man who can't be arsed. Can't be arsed to lift the lid on the meter and read it so its estimated every time. We keep the undergrowth clear and the lid is accessible and I can open it and read the meter just fine but everytime he makes a complaint back to the office that he can't read it.

Then there is Meter Less. They have about 10 operatives in this county and only one of them can actually do anything and understands that power is quite important to us. The rest turn up but never do anything. The ladders too short mate. I have got no reception etc etc, and they pack up and off they go. The next man comes out and lo and behold the same ladder is long enough and reception is fine and he gets on installing the remote meter.

I have entirely given up on Openreach. Never managed to get the landline broadband working for more than a couple of days so don't use it anymore. EE 4g hub never lets us down and is faster than my neighbors fibre broadband which still uses copper to get to the fibre termination cabinet so is still slow and unreliable. Biggest con ever.

Rant over.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I have northern power grid hovering around wanting to replace a mile or so of 11kv line across our fields. They can't tell me when they might start of course, so planning cultivations to help avoid a mess isn't really possible. A bit of foresight and cooperation could save everybody thousands but it doesn't happen. No doubt they have a planning department but can't even give any idea of what time of the year the work will start. I sometimes wonder how they manage to run a business at all. They have been three times already. Firstly with the helicopter, then a bloke in a car having a look around and soon they are going to "walk the line". Anything but get on with it, which will probably come out of the blue 3 weeks before harvest.

Then there is the water meter man who can't be arsed. Can't be arsed to lift the lid on the meter and read it so its estimated every time. We keep the undergrowth clear and the lid is accessible and I can open it and read the meter just fine but everytime he makes a complaint back to the office that he can't read it.

Then there is Meter Less. They have about 10 operatives in this county and only one of them can actually do anything and understands that power is quite important to us. The rest turn up but never do anything. The ladders too short mate. I have got no reception etc etc, and they pack up and off they go. The next man comes out and lo and behold the same ladder is long enough and reception is fine and he gets on installing the remote meter.

I have entirely given up on Openreach. Never managed to get the landline broadband working for more than a couple of days so don't use it anymore. EE 4g hub never lets us down and is faster than my neighbors fibre broadband which still uses copper to get to the fibre termination cabinet so is still slow and unreliable. Biggest con ever.

Rant over.
Bt own both Openreach and EE
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
My remark was ironic.
Nationalising farms makes as much sense as nationalising utilities.
There wasn't some sort of idyll in some unspecified past where publically owned utilities were perfect.

having worked for a utility, watching the waste between budgets (that not my budget mentality, could cost twice as much for same job as long as it was somones else budget(i could give examples which beggar belief)) then putting up bills from customers claiming its part of capital replacements only to give it to shareholder and to top it off the director paid to an account in the caymen islands,

trust me there was nothing efficient about it in any way, i would rather it be run by inefficient government, french government run sections of our rail system at a profit, surely we could do the same?

no sir i would rather have it public sector any day, utilitys are monopolies and should not be privately owned.
 

SRRC

Member
Location
West Somerset
Likewise, food production is an essential public service and should not be privately owned, Farmers should be paid the minimum wage and told to get on with it, after all it's for the greater good.
The North should really grow more milling wheat, they aren't hitting targets as laid out in the 5 Year Plan, sanctions may follow. Plough up all those pastures.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
When a large Pipeline went through my farm it was common to see 10 men working with clipboards charts etc , while 1 man had a shovel in the trench.
the problem with all the utilities is they have not moved five minutes forward since they were nationalised industries. Nobody on the ground can take any decision, it is all top down, and those at the top have never laid hands on a pair of stilsons or a soldering iron.
 
The most incompetant company I have ever met. Just had a phone call to say the 900mm main which supplies the local town,population 100, 000 plus has blown for the 3rd time this year, 9th time in the 17 years since installation. It runs half a mile across 4 fields of mine. Neighbour has it across 3 small fields and I believe it has blown 17 times!!
3 years ago when it blew 5 times in the year I e-mailed the CEO and had maybe hastened the start of the 1200mm replacement which started 2 years ago in March. They did very little for 6 months beside on site meetings, installed the first field before Christmas last year, had all the pipes joined by Feb for the 2 mile section and then spent the summer rewelding all the joints! The section they had buried they had to reinstall!
By the end of this evening I may have used my father favorite expression which used to make me cringe. "you're like a pregnant prostitute! You don't know your f***ing job" I now know what drove him to use it.

Rant over, off to take pictures before they re create the Somme!

I never cease to be amazed by the people I meet who appear to be earning ridiculous money despite the fact they are complete morons you would not trust with a hand brush.

How is it you get to earn big money like that despite being so spectacularly useless, please someone share the secret.
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
Likewise, food production is an essential public service and should not be privately owned, Farmers should be paid the minimum wage and told to get on with it, after all it's for the greater good.
The North should really grow more milling wheat, they aren't hitting targets as laid out in the 5 Year Plan, sanctions may follow. Plough up all those pastures.


not sure how much your earning but if i calculate my time its prob slightly less than minimum wage, difference is im at mercy of auctions when i sell my goods which people have a choice over thousands of other farmers,

i cant set prices saying it cost me that much to produce and i need this much to reinvest etc, so my gate price is this per head, and you have no choice but to pay it...

you cant really be a farmer surely :eek:
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Likewise, food production is an essential public service and should not be privately owned, Farmers should be paid the minimum wage and told to get on with it, after all it's for the greater good.
The North should really grow more milling wheat, they aren't hitting targets as laid out in the 5 Year Plan, sanctions may follow. Plough up all those pastures.

Get minimum wage AND get to wreck someone else’s gear? I’m in......... think of all the sh1t I could blame someone else for ;)
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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