People are complaining after their water company dropped their mains pressure without notice.

A set of neighbours in Bushey noticed that water company Affinity Water, which supplies the area, reduced the pressure without telling its customers.

The water pressure in the WD23 postcode area was reduced from 3 bar, the highest water pressure available, down to 2 bar to reduce leaks.

Gillian Gray, 49, of Grange Road, Bushey, said: “It was my neighbour who contacted us about it. He had told us that his water pressure was low. I rang Affinity Water and they my neighbour said there was a problem in Hillside Road.

“After speaking with our neighbour I noticed our water pressure had fallen. It was 3 bar water pressure and we had noticed the pressure drop.

It’s a bit of a shock to have lower pressure; WD 23 is a massive area and we weren’t given any notice."

According to the neighbours who have complained toAffinity Water, the company has stated that the pressure is above the legal minimum.

Henry Charles, of Grange Road, said: “The first thing I heard there was a problem and leak but there was no explanation why.

“Someone said there was a problem in Hillside Road, Bushey, and Affinity Water decided not to fix it but to reduce the pressure to whole of WD23.

“Something has to be done about it. Affinity Water said have contacted me saying that they will send an engineer to examine houses separately.

“It'll nearly be two weeks by the time someone comes to look at it – it's a road problem not a house problem.

“They and I know that it is not a house problem.

"They think they have reduced to it a decent level.”

A spokesman from Affinity Water said: “We have made a commitment to reduce leakage by 14 per cent between 2015 and 2020.

“A key part of this is managing water pressure in areas where it is very high, as this puts stress on the network, causing bursts and interruption to customers’ supplies.

“Very high pressure can also affect customers’ pipes, causing leaks and damage.

“Over the next five years we are spending £4million to improve the control of pressures across our network.

“In this particular area, the pressure was five times higher than standard operating pressures and there have been more than 30 bursts in the last five years, so we have installed a system to manage this.

“After a number of calls from customers, w We are checking to ensure that they have at least the minimum required service pressure.”