Ellesmere water misery as supplies cut off

Up to 2,000 homes and businesses were hit by water supply problems in Ellesmere in the latest utility misery which has affected the market town.

Reports of lost water supply and low water pressure began emerging at about 1pm yesterday.

Lincoln McMullan, chairman of the town's chamber of commerce, said people were "sick to death" of the problem.

He said homes and businesses in Scotland Street in the town centre were affected yesterday.

Mr McMullan said: "The water has gone off again so I've been up and down Scotland Street checking if others were affected and they were.

"It's a real nuisance and people are sick to death of it. It really needs to be sorted out as it keeps on happening over and over again."

Rachel Blackman, a spokeswoman for Severn Trent Water, apologised.

She said the problems were mostly fixed by a team of engineers by about 3pm.

She said: "It was a damaged water main that caused the problems. It supplied under 2,000 households, but not all of those had their water completely off.

"The water went off for some at about 1pm but others had low water pressure. We apologise to those affected for the inconvenience caused."

Yesterday's problems were the latest to hit the town in recent months.

Customers in and around Ellesmere were had supply problems in March and September last year. During the March incident as many as 500 homes and businesses had their supply knocked out when the main pipe serving the town burst.

At the end of last year Severn Trent carried out some infrastructure improvements to its network of pipes in the Ellesmere area in an effort to address the problems.