Anger as Craven Arms is left with no water
Water company Severn Trent has come under fire after a burst pipe left schools shut and homes and businesses without water across a market town and its surrounding villages.
Hundreds of homes in Craven Arms and villages such as Wistanstow, Westhope and Seifton woke up to dry taps and toilets yesterday, in a water shortage that took until noon to fix.
And The Wood Brewery in Wistanstow was left facing a bill running into thousands after brewing was interrupted.
David Evans, Shropshire councillor for Craven Arms, said it was unacceptable this was still happening after a string of water problems for the past year, including a crisis over a couple of days last Christmas.
He said: "Elderly people couldn't even clean their teeth this morning. There were teachers on the pavement outside the (Stokesay) school because they couldn't work. Businesses in Craven Arms couldn't operate because there was no water in the town.
"This water problem has been dragging on for ages, there has been incident after incident.
"The leaks are terrible around this area. They've put new pipes in the Corvedale, but it hasn't solved the problem.
"Severn Trent want to pull their finger out and get things sorted once and for all."
Edward Wood, owner of The Wood Brewery, said they may have lost thousands of pounds as the water shortage came in the middle of brewing.
"Due to the disruption we're not going to know until the beer goes through the fermentation process whether it's ok or not," he said. "We may end up having to dispose of it, and it will be interesting to see if Severn Trent will reimburse us if we have to pour it down the drain."
Sarah-Jayne O'Kane, speaking for Severn Trent Water, said: "We'd like to apologise to anyone who experienced no water supply or poor pressure."
