THE fury expressed by Accrington trader Gary Davis after being landed with a big water bill for "collecting rain off the roof" is understandable.

But we can also see why North West Water feel they have to make a charge, even though Mr Davis had all his water services disconnected to minimise bills.

The sewerage system which takes away the rainwater is expensive to install and maintain and, as we are frequently told, NWW had to overcome years of neglect.

However, its parent company United Utilities marks up around £1 million profit a day, which makes Mr Davis's bill of £480 for 18 months seem very steep, even though £165 of it was made up of arrears.

There are two iniquities here.

Charges are set on rateable values which means that someone living in a well-heeled area will pay many times more than the actual cost of surface water drainage.

And secondly NWW is a monopoly.

People like Mr Davis who feel they have been ripped off cannot go elsewhere in search of a better deal.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.