A TYLDESLEY woman snubbed a car wash ban in protest against delays in fixing a water mains leak.

Fed-up with complaining about a steady flow of water running down Unsworth Street, she vented her anger with a bucket of water and a sponge!

"The water company tells people to report leaks and then does nothing about it," claimed the irate customer.

"The leak was noticed on March 29 and reported the following day, then on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, but nothing was done.

"Neither my husband nor myself have cleaned our cars this year because of the water shortage, so I cleaned mine in protest. While I was swilling my car off, workmen arrived to take a look at the leak but quickly left saying they couldn't turn-off the supply.

"I'm not paying my water bill."

A North West Water spokesman said:"We do get to leaks as fast as we can, but there is an order of priority.

"In this case a burst in the Sale Lane area took priority. The Manchester Road leak was from a valve which was due to be repaired after the Easter break."

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