Guildhall water leak caused thousands of pounds of damage

A water leak at Hull's Guildhall council headquarters has caused thousands of pounds worth of damage, it has emerged.

Opposition Labour councillors say the leak, over the Christmas period, went undetected because of cutbacks in security staffing at the building.

It was only discovered after a passing member of the public heard an alarm going off inside.

The Guildhall was closed and unsupervised at the time of the leak, which caused damage to newly refurbished ground-floor offices for the council's senior officer team.

Overnight and weekend staffing cover at the Guildhall was reduced as part of a £36,000 budget cut last year by the ruling Liberal Democrat administration.

Staff are now paid overtime to work on evenings and weekends.

Labour leader Councillor Steve Brady said: "This is the very type of incident we warned about. It's not just a lack of forethought, it's a lack of commonsense akin to a Carry On film farce."

The issue was expected to be raised in a Labour motion at today's full council meeting.