Burst water main near Burgess Hill Town Football Club leaves residents without water

South East Water said its repair team are working hard to fix the burst pipe, which is near Burgess Hill Town Football Club in Maple Drive.

A spokesman said: “Residents in Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and surrounding villages may be experiencing water supply problems this morning after a serious burst on a large water main in the area.

“South East Water is working hard to repair the burst pipe, a 15-inch-diametre water main, which was found at the playing fields close to Burgess Hill Football Club.”

Steve Andrews, incident manager, added: “The burst occurred in the early hours of this morning and our repair team has been dispatched to begin fixing the damaged main.

“We’re very aware this area was recently impacted during the heatwave and we are really sorry for the disruption this emergency incident has caused to customers.”

Bottled water stations are in the process of being arranged should they be required if the pipe cannot be quickly repaired, Mr Andrews added.

He continued: “Our priority now is to get tap water supplies flowing as soon as possible and we will be rerouting water around the network to help minimise the number of properties impacted.

“We would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this emergency has caused, but hope our customers understand that we are taking all necessary steps to restore supplies as quickly as we can.”

One resident said they have been without water since 6am.

“Yet again South East Water has failed to serve its customers,” they said.

“Currently, most of Ditchling, Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint, Albourne, Burgess Hill and Wivelsfield is without water and has been since about 6am.

“The main trunk pipe appears to have burst over Bedelands’ football pitch but if you look on the South East Water fault map, there are numerous locations affected over a huge area.

“This happened in the summer, in the hottest week of the year, and on two other occasions earlier this year.”

Talk is increasing of further lockdowns in the UK. What do you think of the situation? Join the Big Conversation and have your say on everything from healthcare to how the pandemic has affected you personally and how we make our communities stronger: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/bc-worthing