‘Water restored for most’ but road will close while burst Leighton Buzzard main is fixed

Anglian Water has used tankers to restore supplies to affected customers, but engineers are still repairing the main and are now closing the Stanbridge Road and Lake Street junction.

However, Stanbridge Road and Falcon Mews residents have reported that they still have nothing coming from their taps, because Anglian Water has temporarily isolated supplies on Stanbridge Road and Stanbridge Road Terrace whilst its engineers are still working.

An Anglian Water spokesman, said: “Ideally, it should be back on within the next few hours.”

The burst main is located in Stanbridge Road and the incident caused Leighton Middle School, Mary Bassett Lower School and several town centre businesses to close.

Leighton Road Surgery, Salisbury House Surgery and Bassett Road Surgery experienced problems too, but remained open, as did Leighton Buzzard Library.

The affected area has also widened on the Anglian Water Leighton Buzzard incident map.

Its website states: “We’re really sorry but some customers in Leighton Buzzard may be experiencing brown, orange or yellow discoloured water. This is due to a disturbance of iron sediments in the water main following the burst main.

“Iron in the water is harmless and is usually short lived and we are carrying out local flushing to remove the discolouration.”

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “We are working hard to fix the burst water main in Stanbridge Road, tankers have restored water to all affected customers [apart from those in the Stanbridge Road and Terrace area] and we are now focused on repairing the main.

“Work will carry on throughout the day and into the evening until the problem has been rectified. A full repair to the road surface will be completed in a couple of days.

“In order for us to carry out the excavation needed to fix the main we will be closing the Stanbridge Road and Lake Street junction in order to allow our teams to complete the repairs as quickly and as safely as we can. We’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and would like to thank local residents for their patience whilst we get things back to normal.

“We are looking to close the road this afternoon and it will reopen as soon as the work is completed.”