Water bills in the South West are the highest in the country

The South West WaterVoice committee has already asked to meet Minister Elliot Morley to complain at a proposed closure of its Exeter office next year.

The move follows an announcement this month that WaterVoice is to be moved to a new office in Bristol.

Truro MP Matthew Taylor said it would badly affect any consumers in Cornwall who wanted to visit the office.

Round trip

Currently, WaterVoice's Exeter office handles more complaints than Bristol and that is expected to increase further if a big price hike in water bills is confirmed.

Mr Taylor said that on top of the "sheer madness" of closing an office handling more complaints than any other in the South West region, Cornish customers wanting to visit WaterVoice would face a round trip of more than eight hours.

He said ministers should stop taking decisions based on bureaucratic convenience and put customers' needs first.

The change was proposed in a study produced in April by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the future structure and organisation of the Consumer Council for Water.

The office closure would be part of a proposed merger of WaterVoice's South West and Wessex regional committees.

Elliot Morley said when PwC's study was put forward: "I know that there will be some disappointment that some regions will lose their dedicated committees.

"But the merged committees covering larger regions will gain the benefit of being able to compare the customer service performance of several water companies."

South West Water has also said it is concerned about the closure of the Exeter office.

The South West has the highest water charges in the country, with further rises expected between 2005 and 2010.