A BUSINESS owner has spoken of his dismay after he was forced to travel miles just to supply his staff with water.

A leak, in a field behind Townfoot Industrial Estate in Brampton, left a large area without an adequate water supply for most of the day.

Most of the CA8 area, including William Howard School was left unable to access water.

The school, on Longtown Road in the town, was unable to open to pupils yesterday.

The issue with the water was first reported just before 6.30am and United Utilities tried to let users know about the problem.

Details of the ongoing work had been regularly updated on their website.

But, it was more than seven hours until the problem was completely fixed and the water supply was back to normal.

The owner of Any Old Iron, Eric Little, a scrap metal merchant, said: “We had to go miles to get water yesterday morning; the Spar sold out in five minutes.

“It slows down business when you have no water. It’s like having no electricity.

“You can’t have a drink or anything.

“It’s not good for the staff.

When the problem was discovered the school announced as soon as possible students would not be able to attend, but that children from the first year would still be able to go on a trip as planned.

A spokesman for William Howard School said: “Year seven children who were due to go on their residential trip should still go in as the trip will go ahead.”

Staff were asked to go into school as normal.

An apology was issued by United Utilities, who had engineers on the way and hoped to deliver water from a different area, which would mean lower water pressure than normal.

A spokesman for United Utilities told the News & Star: “Our engineers are on the way and should be on-site as soon as possible.

“To keep your taps flowing while we repair the leak, we’ll be delivering water to you from a different area which may mean your water pressure is lower than normal.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience and hope to have the leak repaired as soon as possible.”

The cause of the leak is still unknown. The team from the water provider were able to confirm the leak had been fixed just after 2pm yesterday.