Water off as pipe bursts

Up to 500 homes and businesses in a north Shropshire town were without water today after a main water pipe burst.

The pipe feeding Ellesmere burst at about 1am today, leaving parts of the town affected.

Severn Trent Water cordoned off part of the A495 Oswestry to Ellesmere Road near the business park and installed temporary traffic lights to carry out repairs. It hoped to finish the work this afternoon.

Residents and businesses said they were still without water this morning or had reduced pressure.

Sophie Jordan, spokeswoman for Severn Trent, said: "We have got a burst water main on a 10inch water main, one of our largest in Ellesmere, on the A495. It was reported to us at 1am.

"We are currently on site making repairs which we hope will be completed this afternoon."

The spokeswoman said they were "re-zoning" water into the area by bringing water in through different water main pipes.

She added: "We have received around 100 calls from customers without water, that's during the course of the morning. We hope most of those will now be back on because of the re-zone."

She said the burst water main feeds the area with water but because of the re-zone not as many people are affected.

She added: "The highest number that could have been possibly affected is 500, but thanks to the re-zone we limited that to 100 and most of those are back on now."

Residents in Trimpley Street were still without water this morning, while Ellesmere mayor Councillor Brian Knight said the water pressure was very low where he lived at Hillcrest.

He said: "I know it's even difficult to have the washing machine on. It's quite a regular occurrence up on the main Oswestry Road. I think there are a lot of old pipes in the area."

Lincoln McMullan, who lives and works in Scotland Street, said: "We have got water but very little. The pressure is down by about 50 per cent."

It was a different picture across Ellesmere Business Park this morning with some reporting no problems with the water, some had reduced pressure while other businesses had no water.

By Suzanne Roberts