Burst main cuts off 1,700 homes

Friday 27th November 2009, 10:39AM GMT.

tap-water Up to 1,700 Shropshire households were left without water and a school was closed after a burst water main cut off supplies.

Just over 60 children were sent home yesterday after the fault cut off supplies to Wistanstow School, near Craven Arms.

Liz Tinsley, a parent at the school, said: “We were met at the school gate by the head teacher Clare Reynolds saying the school and playgroup were closed because there was no water.

“The school was in a very difficult position, it was chaos for parents because they didn’t know to do with their children for their day.”

A spokesman for Wistanstow School confirmed they had had to send the children home as they could not open the school without water.

They said: “Unfortunately, we didn’t know about the water being cut off until we came into school yesterday morning.”

But, they said the school was open today after the water came back on at about 2pm yesterday.

A spokesman for Severn Trent said: “Potentially 1700 households could have been affected by the fault and we received 250 calls reporting the problem.

“The burst happened early on Thursday morning.

“We re-zoned the area and the fault was fixed by 2.20pm.”

View more: Craven Arms news.