RESIDENTS in a tiny Highland settlement say they are being bullied, held to ransom and deprived of the basic human right of clean water by their local authority.
People in Bridge of Orchy, on the A82 road to Glencoe, claim Argyll and Bute Council is trying to force them to take responsibility for a failing water system installed by the authority.
The authority had maintained the system for the private water supply. However, after the last council house was bought and the school put up for sale, residents were reportedly told they were now responsible for maintenance of the supply.
Residents say they have been left without water several times and claim this has created health issues for elderly residents as well as problems for business owners, who rely on tourism.
The locals say they want to get their supply, like other villages, from Scottish Water. They fear a handful of residents, many of whom are elderly, would otherwise face exorbitant costs as the supply runs under a trunk road.
Residents say the system still has lead piping to some houses, and they face bearing some of the £70,250 costs of merely bringing it up to an "agricultural standard".
Ian Andrew, treasurer of Glen Orchy Community Association, said: "We are the only community in Scotland being treated this way. There are houses on estates on private supplies, but not a local village like ours.
"The residents accept they have a duty to pay for their water, which all understood they were already doing. However, they are unprepared to accept a system which falls short of Scottish Water standards and which examination has proven is presently crumbling."
There are only 10 houses, a hotel, a railway station and a bunkhouse in Bridge of Orchy, which now depends on tourism from the likes of the nearby West Highland Way.
The Glen Orchy Community Association insists that when the old Argyll County Council built four council houses in 1962, responsibility for maintaining the supply was vested in the authority. Water for the rest of the village was provided from the railway supply under private arrangements.
It says in 1996 the council moved the entire village to a single water supply. It said the authority then advised it was the council's responsibility to provide a clean system, and previous provision had not met the necessary standards.
In 2003 the last council house was bought and in 2004 the school closed. In 2010 there was a major failure of the water system and the community was left without water over Christmas.
Residents were then told they were responsible for maintenance as it was a private water supply and the council's last interest, the school, was for sale.
Mr Andrew, whose 85-year-old mother still lives in the village, said there had been meetings with the council at which "the community felt bullied by threats of court action, and blackmailed by threats to withhold the servitude rights presently vested in the authority, unless the residents accept their proposals, adopt the existing supply and bring it up to the necessary standard".
However, an Argyll and Bute Council spokeswoman said: "The water supply at Bridge of Orchy is private. Strathclyde Regional Council, then Argyll and Bute Council-owned properties made use of the supply, but so do the residents and businesses of the community, some with no legal rights to do so."
The council is to sell its last property there "and from then will have no further interest in or responsibility for the supply."
It said the proposed solution would see "all users of the supply given formal rights of use to it, and a corresponding duty for maintenance".
It would involve substantial financial commitment from public sector bodies, the spokeswoman said.
A Scottish Water spokesman said: "Bridge of Orchy has a private water supply.
"The nearest public main is several miles away and connecting the village to that public water supply would be very expensive."
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