SCORES of homes and businesses left without water overnight after a water main burst in Bury St Edmunds have had their supply restored.

James Mortlock

SCORES of homes and businesses left without water overnight after a water main burst in Bury St Edmunds have had their supply restored.

Anglian Water teams worked through the night to get to the damaged pipe and a spokesman for the firm said the 120 firms and residents hit by the burst in Tayfen Road, which happened at just before midday on Thursday and was believed to have been caused by earth movement, had been getting their water back from 6am yesterday.

Late on Thursday the company delivered 1,000 bottles of water to people in the area affected by the burst main as engineers worked to replace the damaged stretch of pipe.

The burst was believed to have been the third time in a year that the pipe has ruptured in the same area and residents, the town's fire station and companies were hit by the problem.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said workers faced particularly difficult circumstances to sort the problem: “Every possible object that could get in our way did.

“We had to get the local council (St Edmundsbury borough) out in the early hours to remove a lamppost that was threatening to fall into the hole. We had to remove some railings and get electricity workers to switch off pedestrian crossing lights.

“We had to dig down by hand using shovels and picks because the space was too tight but people were being put back on from 6am.”