Walney water problems: Pipe bursts one year to the day since last time

A section of Ironworks Road was left covered in water after a main running through the road burst near Furness College at around 6.30pm on Saturday.

A mains burst just like the one that occurred on Saturday evening left residents with significant water supply problems on January 11 last year.

Walney Cllr Anita Husband said: “It’s affected most of the island. We haven’t been able to put our heating on since six yesterday."

Repair workers worked throughout Saturday night and Sunday to restore water supply to the island.

Meanwhile, hundreds of homes across Walney experienced problems with water supply and in some cases had no water access whatsoever.

United Utilities brought water on wheels tankers to restore supply on Sunday. They were parked outside The Ferry.

Cllr Husband expressed concern about the second rupture of this kind in the space of a year. She said: “I hope whatever’s wrong is put right soon. There are elderly residents having to take their medication who will be affected by this.

“Still, though, this is really not good. It needs looking into. I’ll have a word about it in the town hall tomorrow.”

Walney Cllr Tony Callister said: “I have been made aware of the problems with water supply on Walney this weekend through residents and local council colleagues.

“I am pleased that United Utilities have acted very quickly and are working very hard to rectify the problem.”

A United Utilities spokesman said yesterday there had been some minor delays to the repair work, as the team waited on an electricity cable to be repaired.

“Once our colleagues at Electricity North-West have completed this work, we will continue to repair the damaged water main," said the spokesman.

“There are currently nine water-on-wheels tankers pumping water into the second main running through Walney. It will remain there while repairs are ongoing. We expect to have resolved the problem by tomorrow morning.”