THOUSANDS of homes in Kings Worthy went without water last weekend following a burst water main.

Traffic was also severely disrupted as it resulted in the closure of London Road in both directions between Church Lane and Bedfield Lane. A diversion is expected to be in place until 4pm today.

The water outage was reported at about 10.30am on Saturday and Southern Water was able to isolate the main pipe by around 11.30am, restoring water to “all but 30 homes”.

A spokesman said: “Around 2,500 properties were initially without water – the first call we received from a customer was just after 10.30am.

“Within an hour we had isolated the main, returning supplies to all but the 30 homes which are served directly from the broken pipe.

“We delivered bottled water to those properties while crews dug down through the reinforced concrete road to find and fix the pipe and by 7pm all supplies were restored.

“Work then began to reinstate the road which, due to the large 10-metre-long excavation, is due to reopened by 4pm on Tuesday.”

Southern Water said the timescale was agreed with the council’s Highways department and will enable them to ensure a new surface can set before.

The spokesman added: “We apologise for any disruption this may cause.”