Saint Andrews council is implementing a policy to help people seeking financial assistance for their water bills.

Chief administrative officer Chris Spear said the town staff re-checked the data, which showed that a small number of households saw spikes in their water bills, some increasing by triple or more.

“In some cases, we went back and did meter readings in early January and their consumption was still very high indicating a leak within their homes,” he told the council through his report. “In other cases, the consumption was appropriate for larger households, but still financially high.”

He said because of concerns from both council and staff a policy was developed to help some residential customers.

Spear explained that the town operates under a consumption-based system, and those who use more for various reasons will pay more.

Spear said his research revealed the average person uses about 250 litres of water per day or about 25,000 gallons per year.

The council was in support of this new policy, which would allow staff to handle each request for financial assistance instead of them coming to the council for individual approval.

A section was added to require the water bill up to the date of the request for assistance to be in good standing in order to receive credit.

The policy was passed unanimously.