This is the moment a water main showered cars and passers-by near a historic Oxfordshire landmark named after a nursery rhyme. Thames Water has apologised after the burst water main in Banbury forced the closure of West Bar Street on Tuesday evening.
The leak occurred near the Fine Lady on a White Horse statue and was first reported at around 9pm. West Bar Street was closed for repairs while Thames Water stopped the flow of water at 10pm on Tuesday.
Paul-Austin Sargent, an Oxfordshire county councillor, filmed the dramatic incident and said the burst water was a danger to pedestrians.
A spokesperson for Thames Water said: 'We apologise for the disruption caused by a burst water main in Banbury last night. Six customers are temporarily without water while we continue to carry out our repair work and a customer representative is in the area today to speak to anyone who has been affected. West Bar Street at the junction with the Banbury Cross roundabout will remain closed while our engineers work to repair the pipe as quickly as possible.'
The bronze statue, proudly situated next to the Banbury Cross, depicts the Fine Lady on a White Horse riding into Banbury Town. The historic Fine Lady on a White Horse statue has stood in the Oxfordshire town since it was erected more than 20 years ago in 2005. It was unveiled by Princess Anne on April 27 of that year to commemorate the nursery rhyme which made Banbury famous.
The lyrics, enshrined at the base of the statue, go: 'Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross; To see a fine lady upon a white horse; With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes; She shall have music wherever she goes.'
The statue was designed by Artcycle Ltd. It is cast in bronze and mounted on a plinth of Hornton stone, local to the area. The horse is modelled on a Welsh Cob while the woman mounted on top is depicted as the Queen of the May, incorporating symbols of the spring season including a crown of 13 (the ancient months of the year) spring flowers, alternating daffodils and wild roses. Two butterflies and a moth can be spotted hidden amongst the flowers.
The statue also features seven bluebells, representing each day of the week, as she drops petals from her raised left hand. Meanwhile the frog is supposed to represent the life cycle and the Sun, a symbol of Banbury since the 16th century, represents the town itself.
It comes after Britain experienced blistering heat over the May Bank Holiday weekend and this week, rising as high as 35C on Monday. As high-temperature records were broken across the country, thousands of homes were left without water.
South East Water said on Wednesday that more than 10,000 households had to go without. Customers across Kent and East Sussex had no running water and homes in Herne Bay, Ashford and Hastings were completely cut off.
A banner message on the SEW website asked customers to use water wisely as the firm blamed high demand during the heatwave for water shortages. The banner message said: 'We're sorry to customers with water supply issues today. This is caused by high demand for water. Please use water wisely to ensure there is enough water for everyone.'
South East Water's head of operations control Matthew Dean said: 'We are continuing to do all we can to restore drinking water supplies in areas which have seen interruptions due to the extremely high demand for tap water. Our Customer Care Team is continuing to support our vulnerable customers with bottled water deliveries and we will also open bottled water collection stations in areas where they are needed. As these outages are a result of increased demand following the hot weather, supplies will continue to be intermittent for some customers until temperatures decrease and demand reduces. With the hot weather set to last a few more days, we're asking for our customers' help to keep taps flowing locally. We're now asking our customers to use water for essential purposes only, for drinking, washing and cooking. We are sorry to customers who have had interruptions or low pressure in their water supply and know how frustrating it is, especially in very hot weather. We will continue to do all we can to prevent and resolve the issues.'
In Whitstable, thousands have been left without water supply as storage reservoirs for the area 'reached a critical level', South East Water said on Thursday. Pictures show traffic and queues of people lined up at a bottled water collection point at a Sainsbury's near the Kent town on Thursday, as the water company said 8,000 customers were without supply.
It comes as the firm urged customers to use water for essential purposes only – for drinking, washing and cooking, as supply issues continued from over the hot bank holiday weekend. Meanwhile, Kent County Council announced it will step up public scrutiny of water supply, quality and infrastructure in the county following a series of water outages in recent days, leaving residents 'fed up'.
South East Water incident manager Steve Benton said for Whitstable it is expected tap water supply will return later on Thursday, but may be 'intermittent over the weekend'. He also confirmed that currently 7,000 customers are experiencing low pressure or intermittent supply in Tankerton, Ashford and surrounding areas, Ulcombe, Cranbrook, Coxheath and Headcorn. Another 7,000 customers are 'at risk of experiencing some supply loss today', he added.
Mr Benton said: 'Customers across Kent are still experiencing water supply issues due to extremely high demand during the very hot weather. We are doing everything we can to get treated water into our storage reservoirs, but some customers will continue to have intermittent water supply until these levels have been restored.'
According to the water company it pumped 628 million litres of water to customers on Wednesday, and over the weekend it treated and pumped more than 100 million litres more than the daily average for May. Mr Benton apologised to customers and said 'we will continue to do all we can to prevent and resolve the issues'.
Whitstable resident Julie Friel said her water supply became affected at around 6pm on Wednesday before being completely gone by 8pm. The 52-year-old said: 'We can't wash, we can't drink. My partner went out about 7.30am to join the massive queues for water. It's just wholly unacceptable on the first week of hot weather for this to be happening.'
The life coach, who lives with her partner and their cat and dog, said she had used three two-litre bottles of water on Thursday morning doing washing, making breakfast, flushing toilets and making sure the pets had drinking water. She added there is 'no real information to what's happening' and said she complained to South East Water on the phone on Wednesday evening. She said people are like 'sitting ducks' with water, adding it seems there is 'nothing you can do'. 'It's not fun having to do a real shallow kitchen sink wash when you're sweating, it is not nice,' she added.
