Burst pipe causing significant flooding in Aylesbury should be fixed within two weeks, Thames Water says

Thames Water has cautioned that the burst pipe responsible for a large amount of flooding in Aylesbury could take two weeks to fix.

Meadowcroft Open Space Park is dealing with a vast amount of extra water because of a burst water pipe, with water spraying out of the hole into the surrounding River Thame.

Thames Water has completed a temporary fix at the site, but concedes it could take two weeks to completely eradicate the problem.

Today, (4 January), the water service stated its team believes they have made significant progress in restricting the amount of leakage.

But due to the large number of homes the pipeline supplies, work is ongoing to find a strategy that ensures households are not affected during the repair.

Aylesbury Vale Dynamos Football Club which is based in the Meadowcroft area states the pipe burst six days ago.

With water gushing out from the pipe into the river the club has had to take the precaution of cancelling 11 games slated for this weekend, across a number of age groups.

Flooding in the area led to the cancellation of the first team’s 27 December fixture with Risborough Rangers.

While, club secretary Iain Willocks concedes that some of the pitches used by the club might have flooded due to the recent vast rainfall in Aylesbury anyway.

But he states that issues have been exasperated by the large rupture, which means ¾ of the pitches used by the club are totally covered in water.

Popular dog walking, running and cycling routes are also inaccessible due to the overflow of water in the park.

However with the River Thame nearby this area can often be flooded when Aylesbury experiences a heavy amount of rain as it has in recent days.

A spokesman for Thames Water told The Bucks Herald: “We’re aware of the leaking pipe near the Aylesbury Dynamos football club. This pipe serves a large number of customers and in order for us to fix it we have to secure the supplies of the surrounding network to make sure they are not affected. We‘re working on plans in order to isolate the main and support the area while we carry out the repair. We’re sorry for the disruption this is causing and we’ll do all we can to get this fixed as soon as possible.

“We have completed a temporary repair which has significantly reduced the amount of water coming from the pipe and a full repair should be completed within two weeks.”

Video footage released on social media on Monday morning (2 January), showed water spraying into the River Thame at high speed.

With residents complaining that they are not only dealing with floods due to recent rainfall, but also facing further disruption due to the punctured pipe.

Aylesbury Town Council members have contacted the local authority so the issue can be resolved immediately.

An Environment Agency spokesman confirmed to The Bucks Herald that no flood alerts have been made in relation to the River Thame.

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