Dear Editor,

Yesterday, around dinner preparation time, our cold water supply failed in Oakley at the top end of the Vale. We had no warning that water pressure failed. Several residents around us also found the cold tap dry! OK, we are in the midst of a drought, with lack of rainfall over many weeks with rivers and streams run dry. Empty reservoirs everywhere. Any rain we are due likely to come too fast, causing floods due to the ground unable to absorb what we so desperately need.

We are rewarding those at the top, who are there to manage our basic needs, alarmingly outrageous bonuses, only to also discover the entire system requires vast amounts of money spent to update the antiquated pipework - which we now find out, due to our generous handing out of shares to foreign conglomerates, we don’t actually own any more. Crazy!

The forecasts suggest that, because we have filled the atmosphere with harmful contents, these heated times are likely to be frequent occurrences, year on year!

Has our Basingstoke council planning committee given this a consideration when allowing a further 112 houses to be added to our already overcrowded village, when we can’t assure our present residents, constant running water?

Graeme Hewitt,

The Vale,

Oakley