Homes were left without water for hours after a pipe burst, days after the hottest July day recorded in the UK.

Affinity Water was alerted to the problem at the junction of Crossways and Hersham Road, Walton, at about 9.30am on Sunday and sent people to carry out repairs, but some houses did not have water until the evening.

Dan Staunton tweeted at about 3.30pm: "@AffinityWater are you supplying bottled water to Walton residents affected by the burst main. Had no mains water all day?"

While a water supply was eventually restored, the pipe may not be fully repaired until Thursday morning due to nearby power cables causing a safety risk, when some homes will once again lose supply.

At 9pm on Sunday, a statement on Affinity Water's website said: "Due to health and safety concerns on site with damaged power cables in close proximity to the damaged water main.

"Our repair team have made the decision to stand down the repair as it is likely that specialist equipment will be needed from UK Power Network in order to fully continue work.

"We will continue to work in collaboration with UKPN to fully complete this repair at a time that the excavation site can be made completely safe to work in.

"We have managed to put a temporary repair in place in order to restore customers water supplies for the night."

 


 

Just before 11am today [Monday, July 6] the website said: "Work will continue on site today, with UK Power Network to better expose and remove sections of power cables that are currently causing the safety risk to our repair team on site.

"Following this being completed, our team will plan in further work to cut out and replace a large section of pipe in order to fully complete the repair."

The plan is to carry out this work on Thursday, between midnight and 4am. Customers affected will be told beforehand with a shut down card delivered to the address.