Lawther reveals staggering cost of NI Water reminder letters

Alliance Councillor Alan Lawther has expressed shock at the costly reminder letter policy of NI Water. Cllr Lawther has revealed that NI Water sends our reminder letters to metered customers two weeks after the original bill, which cost over £26,000 for the last financial year and the final reminder letter which is sent a week later cost over £20,000. He gained the information through a Freedom of Information request and said that NI Water would be better to leave more time between the original bill and the reminders to ensure they did not have to spend so much on the reminder letters.

Cllr Alan Lawther said: “It is staggering that over £26,000 is spend on sending out the first reminders and over £20,000 are spent on final reminders. These are tight financial times and NI Water should review their policy because there is no real need to send out so many letters so close together.

“I am very surprised that so much is spent to sending these reminders and I think there must be a more cost effective way of doing this.

“NI Water’s present policy is baffling and appears not to work given that the number of final reminders sent out is not significantly lower than the number of first reminders. Also given the fact that around 160,000 bills were originally sent out for the last financial year and over 106,000 first reminders were posted indicates their protocol needs reform.

“This does not seem to present good value for money and I am calling on NI Water to review their policy on reminders as soon as possible.”

ENDS