LEDBURY people have been commenting on the odd taste of the water since last week, but it seems that only one person has officially complained.

The comments on Facebook brought to mind the outbreak of geosmin, an algal bloom drawn from the River Wye, which contaminated Ledbury's water in 2001, causing a rush for bottled water at the town's supermarkets.

At the time, fourteen years ago, Welsh Water installed carbon-filtering equipment to deal with the problem, at its Broomy Hill Water Treatment Works.

Last week, there were over forty comments from concerned Ledbury residents on Facebook, all wondering what could be causing the odd taste this time round.

On resident, Cevan Price said: "It's really noticable. I ignored it at first, then when I was running a bath, it was really strong. I thought if I can smell it, it must be strong.

"Our tap water from Welsh Water has smelled and tasted very chemically for the last few days."

Other residents agreed Mr Price, with one man revealing that he had thrown his kettle away, believing it in error to be the cause, and other householders complaining of a "bleachy" smell and taste.

But a Welsh Water spokesman said: "We have received only one report in the past week from a customer in the Ledbury area regarding the taste of the water.

"We have visited the property and checked the water and can find no problem with it. We have also checked the water at the local water treatment works and found this to be meeting all of the very high quality standards we are required to meet to ensure we provide customers with a clean and safe supply of water."

The spokesman added: "If anyone has any queries regarding their water area then we would advise them to contact our operational line on 0800 0520 0130."