There have been numerous complaints from businesses about the NI Water billing service.

Problems with this basic utility are plaguing traders - inlcuding those in the construction sector.

SDLP Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly made the claim when she said: "Apart from the large amounts of money people are being asked to pay for water, they are angry about the unresponsive customer service system.

"Business premises are getting backdated demands for payment of very considerable amounts because someone, somewhere in NI Water got their figures wrong and are now seeking to cover amounts that should already have been collected. They are then being told they had the wrong meters but no responsibility is accepted," she said.

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"A voluntary body that knew its billing arrangements were clearly wrong found that phone calls and emails were routinely ignored and it took months just to set up a simple meeting to clear things up.

"In another case a professional practice found that its water meter was shared with an adjoining service but NI Water insisted on billing them together and telling them to sort it out among themselves.

"If this is the payment regime Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy is intending to impose on domestic water users he needs to think again. Nothing we hear about NI Water, from board level to local level, inspires confidence.

"It is based on a privatisation concept which is going nowhere when what people want is a simple public service that delivered," she concluded.

(BMcC/GK)