Water plant given a bugs black mark

The Martholme works at Accrington was one of only six out of 140 in the North West to be made the subject of two enforcement actions after failing quality tests.

United Utilities, which provides all water services in the region, said the bacteria was harmless and residents had not been put at any risk.

The Drinking Water Inspectorate announced today that tap water quality in the North West had improved for the 10th successive year. It said 99.82 per cent of more than 340,000 tests carried out by United Utilities in 2003 met all the national and EU drinking water standards.

The Martholme treatment works, however, failed two tests for coliforms - bacteria which is generally harmless to humans.

In its report the DWI described the failures as "not trivial" and said the company had not taken sufficient action to prevent a re-occurrence.

A reservoir at Tosside in the Ribble Valley also failed the coliform test. United Utilities has been warned that enforcement action would be considered in the event of a further failure.

A spokeswoman for United Utilities assured consumers that water from the Martholme plant and the reservoir posed no health problems.

"Coliforms are a natural phenomenon, found in soil and water," she said. "A report and an action plan has been submitted to the DWI which includes actions to remedy the problems."

Claire Jackson, DWI Inspector for the region, said that she was delighted to see tap water quality in the region improve

But she added that it was important that United Utilities remained committed to improving and maintaining the standards.

United Utilities head of drinking water quality Frank White said: "The fact that the quality of water just keeps on getting better is great news for all of us in the North West"

While the North West's record on water quality is improving, its performance is still below the national average of compliance at 99.88 per cent.