KING’S LYNN: Town centre hit by burst main
Water flows into Norfolk Street from a burst water pipe.
Businesses in Lynn town centre who were left without water for the second time in six weeks have hit out at Anglian Water.
Hundreds of firms and homes had no water or were left with low pressure after a main burst in Norfolk Street yesterday.
Water poured out across Norfolk Street, outside the Van Pelt butchers premises, after pressure forced a hole in road surfacing.
The 10in main serves a total of 4,000 customers, which may not have all been directly affected by the burst.
Anglian Water did not have a total number of customers affected in the morning but 130 sites were left without water after 1pm.
The majority of cafes and hairdressing firms continued to operate by using paper cups or bringing in water from home.
But many were angry to be facing a second water cut in six weeks.
The town was without water for most of Friday, October 26 after a pipe burst in Kettlewell Lane.
The company has apologised and promised to carry out investigations to prevent any future problems.
But this is of little comfort to cafe owner Ian Cunliffe, who took the decision to close The Lounge, in Broad Street.
He said: “Every time this happens we loose £1,000 with no way of getting that money back.
“Times are difficult enough without missing out on a prime shopping day.”
Filling Station owner Maria Hooker learned lessons from the last water crisis, in which she lost an estimated £1,000.
She had bought a small boiler to heat water and was using paper plates and cups.
But she still lost money after taking the decision to reduce prices because of this.
Miss Hooker said: “I didn’t think lightning could strike twice.
“There is obviously a problem with the infrastructure.
“Customers have been very nice.”
Owner of Norfolk Tea Rooms Tammy Dean had to bring in water from her home a mile away to heat up in saucepans to keep her cafe running.
She said: “With all the money we pay to Anglian Water they ought to update their pipes.
“This is the second time it has happened in six weeks.
“This is not good.”
Staff at Givi hairdressers were expecting a busy day with a number of people booked in to have their hair coloured.
Manager Clare Tucker said it was a struggle to continue to operate but managed to improvise.
She said: “It was not good. We are a new business and we have effectively lost money.
“We were affected last time and lost money.
“We have had to bring in water from home and use jugs to rinse people’s hair.”
Anglian Water has apologised for the problem, which could have been caused by changing temperatures causing the ground around the pipe to move.
The company had initially asked the Lynn News for help to locate the burst main.
Spokesman Antony Innes said “We are very sorry for the disruption and inconvenience caused to businesses and customers in central Lynn because of a burst water main.
“We know this is the second time in recent weeks that a burst has caused significant disruption to the area and are truly sorry.
“Our priority was to fix the problem and restore supplies as quickly as we could. We will carry out further investigations to see if anything can be done to reduce the chances of similar problems in future.
“The burst happened shortly before 9am, causing properties to lose water or experience a reduced pressure. Our engineers worked throughout the morning to boost pressure in the network.
“By 1pm we were able to fully shut-off the damaged section of pipe, meaning supplies were restored to all but 130 properties.
“Unfortunately, those 130 remained without water until the main was fully repaired.”
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Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North
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