Well-known wildlife campaigner blasts Wave Utilities for landing Milton Keynes animal sanctuary with whopping £23,000 water bill

A wildlife protection campaigner Dominic Dyer has blasted Wave Utilities water company for landing an MK animal sanctuary with a whopping water bill of £23,000.

The writer and broadcaster wrote a post on his X (Twitter) page today saying Wave “should be ashamed of themselves”.

It was read by his 80,000 followers.

Previously Dominic had brought the subject up in an interview with Peter Cardwell on his TalkTV show and is now inviting listeners to let Wave know what they should do to resolve the problem.

The Citizen highlighted last month how the newly-reopened National Animal Welfare Trust (NAWT) charity centre in Aspley Guise was struggling due to the massive water bill.

The problem was due to an underground leak that was not NAWT’s fault, says the charity.

They had reopened to the public on September 2 following a year of costly refurbishment work to repair its crumbling buildings. But almost immediately they received a bill from Wave for £23,778.17 – for a six month period.

The site’s usual water bill is around £1,000 a year, so bosses questioned Wave, hoping it was a mistake. Sadly, it was correct.

It is believed the underground leak developed sometime between August 2022 and February this year, but staff only became aware of it in June when they noticed water collecting in a field.

The centre, formerly HULA, contacted the water company immediately and, after an investigation, the source was discovered and repaired, with the charity paying the £4,000 bill.

NAWT Chief Executive Office, Rob Mitchell, said: “When we examined the water meter readings on the bill.. it clearly showed they had taken a reading back in February this year which revealed at that time a massive spike in water consumption - yet no one from the company informed us.

“Instead, those high meter readings were allowed to run for a further six months until we received our invoice in August.

"We reeling with the shock of the amount we have to pay.”

Immediately after the Citizen story, Wave contacted us to claim they were not the suppliers for NAWT.

A spokesperson said: “Wave have no record of any complaints from this consumer... the customer has incorrectly named Wave .”

Wave named another popular water company, saying they were to blame.

However, two days later the spokesperson apologised – and said Wave was indeed the supplier.

“I must apologise, there was some internal confusion about Wave’s role... but it has come to light that they are the water retailer responsible,” they said.

They added: “Wave has already reached out to the customer, placed their account on hold, reassured them they won’t be getting disconnected and made contact with their wholesaler, Anglian Water, to see what other support we can offer.

“The customer has unfortunately had a number of private leaks in recent years but we are keen to work with them in order to monitor and control their usage going forward.”

Today (Monday), Dominic Dyer stated: “Wave Utilities should be ashamed of themselves for landing a £23,000 bill for a burst pipe on an animal rescue centre in MK struggling to rehome dogs and cats in a cost of living crisis.

"Let Wave Utilities UK know what you think they should do.”