A POWYS mayor has slammed a water company after a burst water main brought disruption to her town.

Mayor of the Montgomery, Jill Kibble, slammed the lack of maintenance that may have led to the incident after the town suffered severe flooding after a pipe burst in the early hours of Tuesday morning (September 13) on Pool Road, leaving many without a water supply.

She said: “This is a recurring problem in Montgomery. The old water main on Pool Road was scheduled for renewal over two years ago but we are still waiting.

“The whole town is without water supplies today (Tuesday) and the school and several businesses have had to close as a result.

"On previous occasions houses on Pool Road have flooded but fortunately that is not the case today. Timely maintenance could actually save so much in the costs of emergency work and disruption to business and life in the town.”

Much of the town was without water for a large period of the day which caused local businesses like the Dragon Hotel to close.

The burst pipe even forced the closure of Ysgol Gymraeg y Trallwng, eight miles in Welshpool.

A spokesperson for the Red Bank-based school said: “We must be on the same line as the school in Montgomery.

“We are closing at 1pm due to health and safety reasons.”

This is not the first burst pipe Montgomery has suffered in recent years.

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In 2018 water pipes burst in March, October and November, causing disruption on Pool Road and Station Road.

Local residents have been left unimpressed with the situation and, much like the Cllr Kibble, felt it had been caused by poor maintenance.

John Thompson, who has been living in the town for 16 years on the Forden Road said: "I had actually been in the town in the evening and we had walked home about 9pm to 9.30pm and we saw a bit of the residue in the road and we thought 'that's not very good' and then the this morning we were very shocked.

"We live a good 150-200 metres for the actual burst and it was running down past us – so clearly it was quite a torrent.

"We just thought 'here we go again'. They never seem to be repaired well because they just keep popping. Quite what that's down to I don't know."

He added: "We do get an awful lot of big vehicles going up and down that road. I wouldn't imagine that help."

A spokesperson from Hafren Dyfrdwy, said: “Early yesterday (Tuesday) morning a large water main burst in Montgomery and engineers arrived on site to begin repairs shortly before 8am.

"Unfortunately, due to the complicated nature of the repair and the difficulties faced to reach the damaged pipe, the leak continued for much longer than anticipated. We were drilling into the road for most of the day to reach the damage, finally succeeding early afternoon, when we carried out a full repair and restored the water supply by 5.30pm.

“Throughout the night, we received reports from customers who were experiencing changes to their water supply. We quickly resolved these low pressure issues. However, some customers may continue to see cloudy water for a short while longer, this is due to air within the pipe. This is normal and will clear in due course.

“We’d like to apologise to everybody impacted and grateful for people’s patience throughout the day while we carried out the complex repair.”