A LEAKING tap at Gillingham’s Black Lion leisure centre has become the centre of a political storm.

The tap at the centre has poured thousands of gallons of water down the drain because no one from the council has repaired it.

The water waste was revealed in an exclusive Medway Messenger story earlier this year.

Last week’s meeting of the council was told by a member of the public that despite publicity in the newspaper and assurances by staff, the tap had never been repaired.

Vivienne Parker, of Concord Avenue, Chatham, had asked during question time what the council was doing to reduce waste.

Environmental portfolio holder, Phil Filmer (Con) told her that the council had just teamed up with The Carbon Trust in a nationwide programme involving 24 other councils to look at reducing waste. “It is a key priority of this council,” he said.

Miss Parker, the Liberal Democrat agent in Chatham and Aylesford, listened as he outlined how the offices of the chief executive and the council leader were set up in order to switch off power after a time if there was no movement.

Cllr Rodney Chambers, the leader, even told councillors that he had to swing his arms around to get power - and heat - restored when he was working.

Miss Parker retorted that an estimated 20 tons of water had gone down the drain at the Black Lion because of the leak. And it was continuing unabated.

“Not only that – we, the council taxpayers, have to foot the bill. How can you claim the council is not being wasteful?” she demanded.

Cllr Filmer thanked her for bringing the ongoing problem to his attention.

The Medway Messenger initially looked into the case of the Black Lion’s dripping taps at the beginning of October after Gillingham resident Heather Lacey contacted the paper.

* Heather carried out her own experiment on the taps which had been dripping for more than two months at the time.

* Heather used a small plastic bottle and a stopwatch to measure the amount of water being wasted each second.

* She took several readings from two taps and found the average to be 16 millilitres per second.

* It was estimated that the amount of water being lost via the three taps, left dripping for more than two months, amounts to more than 56,000 gallons.

* This is 39 gallons per hour, 936 gallons each day, 6,552 gallons a week and 28,080 gallons a month.

* This water would fill about 3,000 baths.