Road will not reopen 'for days' after water leak

A major road may not reopen until "towards the middle of next week" after a pipe burst, leaving residents without water.

Severn Trent has apologised to those experiencing no supply, poor pressure or discoloured water in the GL50 area, which covers central parts of Cheltenham, after the pipe burst on Tuesday.

The A40 London Road has been closed from where it meets Old Bath Road and Hales Road, to the A435 Cirencester Road, while Severn Trent said the repair was taking "a little longer than first anticipated".

A Severn Trent spokesperson said on Friday the pipe itself had been fixed but "work will begin today to repair damage to the road and footpath".

"Given the nature of the damage this may take longer than usual, but we're hopeful that the road will reopen towards the middle of next week," the spokesperson added.

"We want to thank everyone for their patience while we work as quickly as possible to return the road to normal."

Steven Loud, who lives near the burst pipe, said he was first alerted to the situation when a fire engine parked outside his house.

"I thought, 'that's strange', so I looked out the window and I saw, well, I can only describe it as a lake in London Road and with water bubbling up either side of the road," he said.

Loud said it was suggested to him that he filled up vessels in his house with water, but his supply had not been affected at all.

"We filled up the bath, we filled up buckets and kettles and all that sort of stuff," he said.

"So, I've still got a bath full of cold water. I'm not sure what to do with it at the moment, but there you are."

Philip Woolley said the water was backing up outside his front door at about 20:30 BST on Tuesday and, because he has a soakaway drainage system, he said there was a threat of his flat flooding.

Designed to prevent floods and waterlogging, a soakway drainage system is an underground pit that manages surface water and rainwater runoff.

It collects water from roofs, driveways or gardens via pipes, slowly draining it into the surrounding soil.

"It was just like a raging river in the street," he said.

"I'm actually just recovering from surgery, so my mobility is not good, so to have to get out of there with a bucket and start to try and relieve this flood, it was really quite scary," he added.

He said he felt he had "dodged a bit of a bullet" when he noticed his water supply had returned at about 02:30 BST.

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