NORTH West Water today announced that it will stop putting controversial "pay before you drink" meters in homes.

The company has put the scheme on "temporary hold" while it investigates customer concerns.

The news is a victory for Bolton Council and other local authorities who made a legal challenge of the pre-payment "smart card" meters.

Cllr Bob Howarth, Bolton Council leader, said: "We were unhappy from the start about this.

"While we accept that people have to pay their water bills, we did not feel this was the right way to go about it."

North West Water was planning to install the devices in homes where people were having difficulty paying their bills.

But council chiefs feared they would be a health hazard because people would go without water until they could afford a card.

North West Water said today that some of the concerns had been based on "misunderstandings about the company's operating procedures and the customer safeguards involved, particularly where customers self-disconnect their water supply because they have not re-charged their unit."

Mr Bob Armstrong, North West Water's Customer Services Director, said: "We have put a temporary hold on installing any further units so that we can address the concerns that have been express.

"In doing this, we will take into account feedback from customers, including the result of a MORI survey on self-disconnection commissioned by the Water Services Association."

He added: "We believe that we will be able to address the concerns surrounding the use of the units and we will then offer the Watercard payment option to our customers on a voluntary basis."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.