ALTON Town Council could be faced with a £10,000 bill to replace a leaking pipe which is currently costing the council a penny a minute in increased water rates.
The leak at Jubilee playing fields may be under the pitch but, rather than face the prohibitive cost of digging it up, it has been decided to lay a new pipe around the edge of the field.
In reporting to a recent meeting of ATC recreation committee, head groundsman John Sadler said that the first course of action had been to replace the old meter, but this had made no difference to the reading and neither the water company nor a specialist firm had been able to identify where the leak was occurring.
The ground, which is chalk, was so porous that any water was disappearing straight away and no wet patch could be detected.