My prince of wells

Prince Charles's laundryman got so fed up with huge water bills he dug his own well. He tells Michael Harvey any Londoner can do the same My prince of wells EVER had a run-in with your gas, electricity, water or phone company? Have you ever been kept on hold to a call centre for so long you have been able to meticulously plan your revenge against the supplier? If so, you will immediately identify with Daniel Browne, who took on Thames Water and won. Victory alone might have been satisfaction enough but in Browne's case the outcome has been extraordinary.

Browne is the owner of an upmarket laundry business, Blossom and Browne Sycamore, which no longer needs water from the giant utility firm, thanks to the well he has dug in its back garden.

His Upton Park laundry has four royal warrants: it takes in Prince Charles's washing and handles the Royal Household's finest linens. It also has an impressive list of celebrity clients whose undies swirl around with the threadbare, striped flannelette of the redoubtable grannies of Maida Vale.

All this gets through a great deal of water - around 20 cubic metres a day or pounds 40,000 worth a year, to be precise. But it was only after a chance meeting that Browne discovered he could do without such an expensive outside supplier.

Browne had been fuming about his water bill in front of some fellow launderers. He explained how Thames Water had tried to charge him pounds 80,000 for a year's supply (it had actually been misreading his meter for two years).

It was then that a colleague suggested that Browne sink a borehole of his own.

Now, the idea of being able to dig a well in London might seem strange, even impossible. But it is a serious option, especially for anyone with a large requirement for water. In fact, anyone can sink their own well, commercial or residential, and the savings can be huge. It is possible to see your bill drop from 60p per cubic metre to around 8p.

Of course, you can't just take a pickaxe to your patio: you need an expert to find a suitable drilling point. Browne called in John Webb of Smith and Webb (Drilling) Ltd. Webb explained that London has countless private boreholes: Buckingham Palace, major hotels, anywhere that uses a large amount of water will, or could, have one. Webb has sunk boreholes for MPs, Sainsbury's superstore in Greenwich, even Victoria and David Beckham's famous "Beckingham Palace" home in Hertfordshire.

Outside London, most private boreholes are dug because they are cheaper than connecting to a distant mains, or because the water demand is huge - as with golf courses or nurseries. In London, private homes use boreholes because of past problems with hosepipe bans, or simply because owners want to be independent of their water supplier.

In one case, a homeowner has gone to the trouble of sinking a borehole in his garden solely to obtain a supply of water for his daily glass of whisky.

Londoners who want their own well need to balance the costs. The price for a domestic borehole is likely to be around pounds 5,000, which might not be justified if your water bills are not that great. Webb says the costs depend, naturally enough, on how far you have to drill: "If you live in Hampstead, one of the highest parts of London, you're going to have to drill a long way before you get water. But, if you live near the Thames, you may only have to go as deep as 10 metres. Either way, the advantage for domestic users is that you don't need to obtain a licence from the Environment Agency to open a well."

Browne, however, did. To get water for his business, he also had to dig deeper than 10 metres. First, a survey was done to establish the chances of hitting water and whether it would be worth the trouble.

"There are no guarantees. I was told I had a 70 per cent chance of getting 50 per cent of my water. It cost pounds 20,000 just to sink the hole, which is around four inches in diameter. The pipes were hammered into the ground, not drilled.

"After 70 metres we had found nothing and had to decide whether to continue or not. We decided to take the risk and at 120 metres we struck water."

Browne says that, in the end, it does indeed seem worth it. He has access to all the water he needs and, a bonus, it is softer than Thames Water's, which is a great advantage in the laundry business.

To obtain his licence, Browne must advertise the existence of the borehole in his local newspaper; if no one objects, he can then turn off his mains supply.

Browne will still need Thames Water, however. For what comes up, must go down and the company will be responsible for taking his waste water. The bill for that is likely to be around pounds 8,000 a year.

Smith and Webb (Drilling) Ltd can be contacted on 01296 668646.

Copyright 2002
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