Water company apologises after two burst pipes
A water company has issued an apology to residents after two burst water pipes brought parts of a Mid Wales town to a halt.
A burst main on October 24 left Pool Road, Montgomery, flooded causing businesses and homes to be left without water and the town's primary school to close.
Then in Station Road on November 16, another burst main around 100 yards away caused the road surface to break up and water company Hafren Dyfrdwy took several days to sort the problem.
On each occasion the roads were closed for five days, with buses unable to get to areas of the town and businesses suffering as a consequence.
Local business owners have called for the situation to be looked at urgently to stop it from happening again.
A spokesman for Hafren Dyfrdwy said if businesses thought they have suffered, they can contact the company.
"We’d like to apologise to customers in Montgomery who were affected by the two recent burst pipes," he said.
"These were separate incidents which both involved complex repairs with the road having to be closed for safety reasons.
"Both sections of the pipe have now been fixed and our teams worked as quickly as possible to get things back to normal and the road reinstated.
"If any businesses believe they might have suffered as a result of the work they can either contact their retailer or contact us at businesscompensation@hdcymru.co.uk”
Kathryn Francis of Checkers Pantry was one business to be hit, however, she did praised the work of the water company on site.
She added: "The situation needs to be looked into urgently. During the first leak I spent several hours on the phone to various agencies trying to get a firm idea of when they expected the water supply to be re-established.
"The information relayed was largely scant and inaccurate with very little regard for the disruption and potential loss of business the situation posed.
"We were advised that businesses should have enough stored water to manage for 24 hours which is a very unrealistic expectation.”
The town council has attempted to meet with the water company, and had written to Ofwat regarding the situation.
