York: Danny Myers hits out at Yorkshire Water after pipe bursts

As reported by the Press, a burst pipe forced the closure of Water Lane, in Clifton, yesterday (June 29) after a stretch of the road was entirely covered in water.

Today the road has reopened with clean up work now underway but Clifton Green Primary School took the decision to close for the day citing the burst pipe as the reason.

The Water Lane side of Kingsway North is closed today while engineers work to fix the problem.

Cllr Danny Myers, Labour councillor for Clifton, has criticised Yorkshire Water over the incident, which follows similar pipe bursts in recent years in Water Lane, and called for the water industry to be nationalised

Water Lane flooded after the pipe burst last night (Image: Megi Rychlikova)

"We feel Clifton is badly served by Yorkshire Water,” he said.

“A number of times the water mains have burst in Water Lane causing road closures and despite a good amount of work through the night, draining the flooding, the local primary school, Clifton Green, is closed today, which gives many parents and carers an extra headache to sort out at short notice.

"It feels like Yorkshire Water are reacting to problems rather than being proactive and investing in the creaking infrastructure that they are responsible for.

“The billions of pounds the water industry has siphoned from the public purse over the past few decades only goes to show that privatisation doesn't work, they are effectively a monopoly with a toothless regulator that lets them get away with profiteering and poor performance; the public deserve far better, the water industry should be nationalised."

Cllr Danny Myers (Image: pic supplied)

Yorkshire Water say the burst pipe was fixed last night and the firm is now investigating the cause of the burst to avoid it happening again.

A spokesperson for the water company said: “Unfortunately, burst pipes do happen from time to time and we do our best to fix them quickly and keep disruption to a minimum.

“We are investigating the cause of this burst to make sure we can put measures in place to stop it happening again.

“The burst on Water Lane/Kingsway North was fixed quickly last night, with all customers' supply back to normal within a few hours.

“Whilst we know works like this can be disruptive, we’re working as quickly as we can to fix the road and remove the road closure.”

Read next:

• School closed after burst pipe flooded street in York
• York road closed because of burst main - localised flooding
• York council hit out at Yorkshire Water: 'fix leaks or repay residents'

The spokesperson said Yorkshire Water spoke with Clifton Green Primary School and advised the school that its water supply had not been interrupted by the burst pipe but the school made the decision to close regardless.

Clifton Green Primary School (Image: Google)

During the burst yesterday Water Lane was closed by police and people were urged to avoid the area.

North Yorkshire Police say the road closure was in place due to a sink hole appearing.

A photograph from the scene shows the sink hole at the bottom of Kingsway North.

The sink hole at the bottom of Kingsway North (Image: Claire Arnold)