Shrewsbury garage boss fears for future after third flood

Clive Pratt, the owner of E A Downes & Sons Ltd, said the damage caused by the burst pipe could run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mr Pratt said a river of water had been pouring into his garage in Meole Brace for hours before Severn Trent turned off the water supply.

He said it was the third time it had happened in five years.

More than 700 homes were also affected by the burst pipe at 1.30am on Sunday, with residents in the Meole Brace and Belle Vue areas left without water or low pressure. Severn Trent said water supplies were eventually back up and running by about 3pm.

Mr Pratt said: "I've had to tell my 16 workers they might be out of a job just before Christmas, which has been heartbreaking.

"These are men who have families and have to pay their mortgages.

"We've never had an apology off Severn Trent on either occasion. All they do is argue about the money.

"Last time they brought a load of cleaners in and said everything was fine but they don't take into account the damage to all the electrical equipment, the tools, the machinery and the walls, which were left rotten last time."

The business has been based in Meole Brace for 90 years and carries out repairs, MoTs and 24-hour emergency callouts.

Mr Pratt said he would be calling out his own contractors to make sure all the damage was logged and repaired correctly.

But he feared he may ultimately have to close his business for good.

He said: "I think this latest incident has finished us."

Other businesses affected included The Clay Oven, Rainbow Connection Hair Salon.

Sarah McArthur, spokeswoman for Severn Trent, said engineers had restored water to all the 700 customers affected and apologised to any businesses that had been damaged as result.

She said: "Obviously we are really sorry for any damage that has been caused.

"We don't want people to be affected by this.

"We had our loss adjustors speaking to people this morning."

The main burst forced police to close Hereford Road in Meole Brace while engineers carried out emergency repairs at the junction of Roman Road and Upper Road.

Water was also seen streaming down Roman Road onto Hereford Road, close to the BP garage.

Severn Trent said that water supplies were affected as a result in the SY2 and SY3 areas, with the Meole and Belle Vue areas left without water or low pressure.

Ms McArthur said: "On Sunday morning we discovered a burst water pipe on the junction of Roman Road and Upper Road, Shrewsbury, which caused water supplies to be off or at low pressure for some of our customers in SY2 or SY3. Our teams were out on site and worked around the clock to get the pipe fixed and everything back to normal as quickly as possible.

"After the work we had been carrying out we had restored water to 50 per cent of the customers affected by about 1.30pm.

"We re-zoned the water supplies around to get the majority of people back up and running as soon as possible.

"At the height of the problems we received 700 calls from customers."