Designer water from bottling plant

WHILE the bottles might look designer, the water that is drunk at Endeavour House is anything but expensive.

WHILE the bottles might look designer, the water that is drunk at Endeavour House is anything but expensive.

When Suffolk County Council moved into its new headquarters in 2004, members continued to drink bottled designer water during meetings.

However, 18 months later the decision was taken to ditch the plastic bottles and install their own bottling plant in the building in Russell Road.

Now water drunk at Endeavour House comes from reuseable bottles that are steralised and refilled at a special machine.

“When the plant was installed in 2006 it was designed to pay for itself within three years. So now we are getting water at virtually no cost. It is a good deal for the council taxpayers of Suffolk. The bottles themselves are very tough and can be steralised and re-used indefinitely,” said a council spokesperson.

And the water is certainly needed during a long council meeting - last week's meeting on Thursday lasted four hours and while it may have been cold outside, inside the council chamber the temperature rose steadily, forcing many of the men in the room to take their jackets off.

Copious quantities of water was consumed by everyone from chief executive Andrea Hill down to the press bench at the back of the room!

Is the water deal good for the council? What do you think? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk >