Businesses hit by Mother's Day water cuts
Sarah HallMore than a thousand homes and businesses were left without running water for more than 10 hours yesterday after a water main burst on the A47.Sarah Hall
More than a thousand homes and businesses were left without running water for more than 10 hours yesterday after a water main burst on the A47.
Mums turning on the tap to fill vases of flowers bought for them on Mothers' Day were met with only a trickle of water before the supply stopped completely in the Acle area just after 8am.
With restaurants and pubs booked well in advance for Mothers' Day, the lack of running water created headaches for businesses.
Phil Hannon, landlord at The Bridge Inn, which had a special Mothers' Day menu, said: 'We had people calling us in the morning asking if we would still be serving and we said yes - so everyone still turned up.
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'We were lucky as we have quite low water pressure, so we managed to conserve our supplies. It wasn't going to stop us; that was our attitude.
'I once worked somewhere which had a power cut on Mothers' Day - now that really did cause problems…'
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A spokeswoman at The Hermitage Restaurant, in Old Road, said: 'It was a bit of a challenge, but we got through it. We do roasts by steaming them so we were able to meet all the bookings.
'To be honest I don't think too many people will have noticed there was a problem.'
Rachael Barnard, who runs Country Florist, in The Street, said: 'I was fortunate in that I had 18 buckets of water left over from the day before, when I was getting all the bouquets of flowers made up.
'But when I turned the tap on and no water came out I instantly thought of all the restaurants and how they would cope on Mothers' Day.
'I had one of my customers came in who was saying they hadn't been able to have a shower. I just hope mums had enough water to put their flowers in.'
Bosses at Anglian Water managed to restore the water by 6pm, but apologised for the disruption, especially on such an important day.
A spokeswoman for Anglian Water said: 'There was a burst water main on the A47 at about 8am and around 1,500 properties were affected.
'The water started coming back into the mains at around 5pm. We took some samples and everything seemed to be fine.
'It was quite a large main which went and it was a difficult one to repair. We are apologetic to people who were affected, particularly with it being Mothers' Day.'
Do you have a story for the Evening News? Call reporter Dan Grimmer on 01603 772375 or email dan.grimmer@archant.co.uk
