Severn Trent apologises for Oswestry pothole drilling - at 5am

Residents were woken by the sound of drilling in the early hours of May 24, after contractors on behalf of Severn Trent arrived to repair a pothole at the junction of Willow Street and Oak Street.

One disgruntled resident, Wayne Francis, went out to confront the workmen who continued with the work before leaving a short time later.

He was livid they were working so early in the morning, and tried to investigate why they were there.

Later it was revealed it was contractors carrying out work on behalf of the water company.

Mr Francis said: "Someone had begun to put cones out before hand, then all of a sudden this drilling began and it was 4.50am.

"I wandered what the hell was going on, so I went outside to ask why it was being done at this time to which I was told it was an emergency.

"It wasn't an emergency; that pothole has been there for months, so I don't see why they had to do it so urgently.

"I have children, and other residents in the area have children, I just don't get why they had to do it.

"They had a traffic management system and it wasn't used so I am guessing they just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible."

A spokesman for Severn Trent has issued an apology to local residents.

He said the team was nearby and had arrived early so just got on with the work to avoid rush hour traffic.

He said: “We’re sorry for anyone who was disturbed by our engineers completing repairs to the road early in the morning.

“The team had completed a different job nearby and arrived at this one earlier than planned and wanted to complete it before rush hour traffic.

“We wouldn’t normally begin work this early in a residential area if it wasn’t an emergency and we’re really sorry that disruption was caused to local residents on this occasion.”