Planned Work

Northumbrian Water are investing approximately £1.6m to enhance the resilience of the water supply network in Westerton and the surrounding areas of Coundon, Kirk Merrington and Ferryhill. 

We will be installing around 850m of new water main from the bottom of Westerton Heights bank in the farmland on the North side of the road.  We will also be commissioning a new pumping station within the same farmland in the bottom section of the lower field, to transport drinking water to the surrounding areas at the required pressures. 

The main will be laid up-hill, continuing through the fields to the top of the bank and will cross the road somewhere within the village to connect into the existing main that supplies Coundon.  This connection point will be confirmed at a later date, once specific locations are agreed.  We will connect into the existing mains that supply Kirk Merrington and Ferry Hill on the side of the road which hosts the Village Green and the Thomas Wright Observatory, taking care to avoid excavating in the Village Green as much as possible.

Once the new pumping station and main is commissioned and in supply, we will take the existing reservoir out of service and decommission the sections of associated main.  There will be no need to excavate these old mains and they will remain buried within the ground.  The reservoir will be drained, capped, made safe & secure and left as a decommissioned structure, which NWL will continue to be responsible for.  There will be an increased use of the shared access road to the site during this stage of the work, but disruption will be kept to a minimum and we will update residents nearer the time about planned dates for these activities.