THOUSANDS of households were without water on Bank Holiday Monday as a pipe more than five metres underground burst on Sunday.

Severn Trent workmen worked until midnight on Monday to restore the homes of Cinderford and surrounding villages with running water. Local supermarkets had their bottled water stock wiped out as residents battled to grab supplies.

A fleet of tankers were lined up along the A48 at Westbury-on-Severn taking water from a supply pipe to fill a nearby reservoir at Wigpool in Drybrook, so residents at least had running water, while a specialist digger was drafted in to locate the burst water pipe at Steam Mills Football Club's ground.

A Cinderford resident, who didn't wish to be named, told the Review: "I knew something was wrong with our water on Sunday night as the water pressure was low while I was getting ready for bed. I checked our water pressure gauge and it was giving a reading of half a bar whereas usually it is around three. The next morning we were without water.

"I knew it must have been a large-scale problem when both Lidl and the Co-op had no bottled water left. One chap I noticed came out with a trolley full and it was by chance a Severn Trent van was parked up in the car park and offered a bottle to tide us over."

Not long after word spread of the shortage, Severn Trent started dishing out free bottles at the Co-op and Forest Daycare Centre on Valley Road. However some took to Monmouth, Gloucester and even Cheltenham to ensure they weren't left without. The pipe, which is buried underneath a stream, supplies homes from Ruspidge to Drybrook and Cinderford to Littledean Road.

Speaking from the affected site, distribution team manager David Murphy said: "It is a huge problem which has involved us getting a digger in to find the pipe. We have tankers going to and from Westbury to our reservoir so residents at least have water. It's possible it could take at least 24 hours to repair the pipe."

However on Tuesday morning, a spokesman for Severn Trent said water supply was back to normal. "We're happy to say that all water supplies are now back on in the GL14 Cinderford area. We'd like to apologise to anyone who was affected by the burst pipe on Sunday night and subsequent loss of supply Monday.

"Our teams worked really hard, round the clock, to repair the burst pipe and get water supplies back on. Unfortunately, it did take longer than we'd have liked. We'd like to thank both Co-op and the Forest Daycare Centre for their help and support yesterday with the distribution of free bottled water for our customers. We're really sorry for all of this and we hope this hasn't caused our customers too much trouble – we know how difficult it is to have no water."

•FOLLOWING a story in last week's paper regarding the works at Whitecroft, Severn Trent has announced the works will not be completed until the end of the month.

At the time site workmen hinted they hoped to complete work by the end of this week.