THOUSANDS OF Dundee water customers are likely to have their claims for compensation rejected by Scottish Water because the water pipe that burst in a field north of the city was a “strategic” main pipe—and not an ordinary water pipe, it has emerged.

Initially, it appeared that affected customers could be entitled to a total of £400,000 in compensation, with the water company’s own code of practice stating that a minimum £20 was payable if supplies were disrupted for more than 12 hours.

As many as 10,000 customers were left without water from 9 am on Monday until lunchtime on Tuesday.

However, Scottish Water has made it clear that the compensation did not apply where the disruption was to a strategic water main.

Such bursts were covered by different criteria which, according to the company, would enable it to avoid paying compensation by a matter of minutes.

A spokesman for the company said it has 48 hours to restore supplies where a strategic main is fractured. It also has up to eight hours to supply an alternative source of water.

Scottish Water says it was notified of the problem at 9.30 am and claimed to have a static water tank in the affected area by around 5 pm, beating the compensation deadline by half an hour.

It also managed to supply bottled water to special needs customers within the necessary timeframe to avoid payouts.

The burst was understood to have been caused by a contractor working on a Dundee City Council job in a field north of Longhaugh Road.

Scottish Water said it is standard procedure for it to seek recovery of its costs when someone else has caused an accident.

Investigations into the cause of the burst will continue over the next fortnight and a meeting with the council will take place during that time.

The city council was asked to confirm that the contractor had indemnity insurance in place in case of burst pipes and also whether or not the contractor would be allowed to remain on the local authority’s approved list should it emerge that there was an element of carelessness in the contractor’s work.

A council spokesman said, “We will be meeting with Scottish Water to discuss the issues and circumstances surrounding the incident.

“We believe Scottish Water are meeting with the contractors separately.

“We are not prepared to speculate on hypothetical situations potentially arising from the meeting.”

Meanwhile, Claverhouse councillor Andy Dawson last night said he was disappointed in Scottish Water’s decision not to give compensation to its customers.

He said, “The decision seems to me to be a strategic cop-out. They have found a loophole somewhere.

“I was very disappointed in Scottish Water’s response time to the problem.

“Bottled water should have been distributed in the affected areas long before it was,” he added.