WATER has been gushing out of The Hive at an estimated rate of 3,600 litres per hour for weeks, a house boat owner has claimed.

Robert Houseman is on a tour of Britain’s waterways with his partner and noticed the leak above the towpath off Croft Road, Worcester, after mooring up last week.

However, The Hive says the leakage is due to a breakage between two pipes, and it is river water, which the library uses for its cooling systems, that is leaking. It said that the leak would be fixed this week.

Mr Houseman has measured the amount of water using a bucket. He believes it is coming from an air vent and says locals claim it has been leaking for almost a month.

He said: “These days, with all the talk of water shortages, it seems awfully lax – but this is something which has been going on for weeks and weeks.

“The water is gushing out onto the towpath – people have been putting down mats so they walk through it without getting wet.

“I’m just a visitor, but you as rate payers – 1,000 gallons an hour is being completely wasted.

“It must have been here for weeks because of the sheer amount of green slime – but nobody seems bothered.”

Mr Houseman, from Newbury, said he contacted Severn Trent last week and engineers determined on Thursday the water is not sewage as it does not contain ammonia.

He said they then established it was from an overflow coming from the holding tank in the bank above the tow path but is “not their asset.”

A spokesman for Severn Trent confirmed engineers had found the water was from a private drain, and told Mr Houseman to contact the council – it was then found to be coming from a pipe near The Hive.

A spokesman for The Hive said: “The river water is being allowed to flow back into the river via the overflow as is the design of the system.

“Therefore, the water leaking is neither processed nor contaminated and poses absolutely no risk to the environment.”

The spokesman said due to the leak being in a confined space, specialist equipment is needed.