Homes left without water and schools shut after ‘very large’ pipe bursts

A large burst water main has left several properties without water across Bristol and parts of Gloucestershire.

Bristol Water said its crew was investigating the incident on Tenniscourt Road. Areas affected include Kingswood, Warmley, Cadbury Heath, Longwell Green and Oldland.

The company, which supplies water to 1.2 million people in Bristol, said households were experiencing very poor pressure or were completely without water.

A spokesperson for Bristol Water said: “We’ve rerouted water in the network where possible to reduce the number of customers affected while we work to fix the issue as quickly as possible.

“We’re sorry for the disruption and will continue to keep customers updated.”

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Several schools in the area are closed, including Oldland Pre-School and Sir Bernard Lovell Academy in Oldland Common, Kings Oak Academy in Kingswood and Digitech Academy in Bristol.

Kings Oak Academy said its school was without any water supply and was unable to open safely.

In a post on social media, Oldland Pre-School said: “Apologies for the late notice but we have no running water at the preschool so we cannot operate without flushing toilets and facilities for washing hands.”

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Tenniscourt Road is temporarily closed to allow work to be completed safely.

Bristol Water has set up bottled water hubs for customers affected by the burst at ASDA in Longwell Green and at Sainsbury’s at Emersons Green.

“Bottled Water is also being delivered to our priority service customers, starting with our most vulnerable customers on the register,” it said.

A resident in Warmley told the BBC that the supermarket had sold out of water. “We went to Asda for opening at 6am to make sure we had enough water for bottles for the day and there were already queues of people with trolleys full. Apparently they’d sold out of water by 8.30am.

"Vulnerable people and those with babies are prioritised for water deliveries apparently, but as of 09:30 we still haven’t received any."