Northumberland County Council·Internal Audit Service
Water supply
There is no standpipe on the field. Water is taken from the hall tap when the hall is open. The tap is a single kitchen fitting inside the building. It is not a drinking-water point marked as such, is not frost-protected as an external point, and is not accessible when the hall is locked. The key is at the Heritage Centre. After 20:00, and on any day the hall is shut, there is no water on the landholding.
- The hall is understood to be on the public supply. No meter, stopcock, or boundary valve was identified at the field.
- No sampling under the Private Water Supplies Regulations 1991 was indicated, because the supply is not presented as private. That assumption was not confirmed with the water undertaker.
- No hose, no waste-water gully, and no point for the emptying of washing-up water exist on the field. Grey water would, if disposed of on the grass, soak toward the trees.
- The operator’s public description states the position accurately: water is from the hall tap when the hall is open.
- A licensed site of this size would normally show one labelled drinking-water point, usable without entering a locked building.
Finding 4 — water
Persons may be on the field overnight without a water supply. That is incompatible with the Authority’s standard conditions. Either an external point, usable without the hall key, should be provided for the season, or public offers should be limited to nights when the hall is known to be open at both ends of the stay.