A GUSHING water leak has finally been fixed – three weeks after concerned residents reported the problem.

Severn Trent Water’s engineers were called to Main Road (A38) near the village stores in Kempsey, near Worcester, on Friday, August 5, by the area’s district councillor David Harrison after water started bubbling up across the road.

The road is a major artery for non-motorway traffic between Worcester and Tewkesbury.

Severn Trent Water says the leak was actually on a customer’s supply pipe and therefore their responsibility, although it did eventually send engineers to fix it for free on Sunday.

Coun Harrison said: “The burst main was causing flooding and there was actually so much water that it blocked the storm drains in the road.

“The cars were driving right through it and spraying water up the shop windows as well.

“What I cannot understand is why it has taken three weeks to fix.”

Bob Singh, who runs the Original Stores village shop on the crossroads in Kempsey, said many of his customers had come into his shop with wet feet.

He told Councillor Harrison about the problem, and he called the water company.

“The cars were going by and splashing the water up the front of the shop,” said Mr Singh.

“People were also coming in with muddy and wet feet, because they were having to walk through the water to get here.”

Amy Weiser, from Severn Trent’s media and customer engagement team, said: “The leak was on a water customer’s supply pipe.

“This is technically the customer’s responsibility, but as a service to customers we offer a free repair under certain conditions.

“The leak was less than half a metre from a lamppost, so we needed to arrange with Worcestershire County Council to have the post supported while the leak was being repaired, because we may have disturbed the foundations to it while digging down to fix the leak.

“Any damage to the road because of the leak is Severn Trent’s responsibility to repair, and the repair work was passed on to our contractors.”

For more information about who is responsible for fixing a water leak, visit stwater.co.uk/server.php?show=nav.6287.