RESIDENTS were left without water after a 160-year-old pipe to their homes repeatedly burst.

The water company turned off the supply as builders repaired the leaking pipe in NewRoad, Leigh – without realising it supplied cottages at the back of the property.

Increased water pressure after the repair caused the rusty pipe to burst again further up, leaving the cottages without water again last weekend.

Benfleet-based LRC Build and Refurbishment found the leak when clearing space for a new extension at the back of 12A New Road.

Not realising the pipe supplied Ray Cottages, behind the property, the builders asked Essex and Suffolk Water to shut off the supply while they patched the pipe. The cottages were left without water for a night last month.

Essex and Suffolk Water repaired the latest leak on Monday.

Maryann Howard, who owns one of the cottages and was left with a £200 repair bill from LRC, said: “Effectively we are over a barrel and we had to agree we would pay for the reconnection.

“Let’s hope this is the end of it and that no one interferes with the supply in future.”

Lee Costello, owner of LRC, said: “The supply has been leaking for a long, long time.

“We had a right to repair it, as we did. We were not aware it was serving all three properties.

“We turned it off and as soon as we realised the problem, we fixed it.”

A spokesman for Essex and Suffolk Water said: “Essex and Suffolk Water did turn-off the water supply at the request of one of the properties on Wednesday, September 10, after the discovery of a leak on the pipe for private contactors to repair.

“On Monday, October 6, the water company did carry out a repair on an additional leak to the supply pipe – in line with our code of practice on dealing with leaks and our free repair policy – this work was carried out free-of-charge.

“A shared supply pipe is the joint responsibility of all private properties served by the pipe, and it is up to the property owners to arrange for repairs or renewals of the pipe.”