THE burst water main that forced city centre bars and restaurants to close in Worcester affected businesses on "the busiest evening prior to Christmas".

All the bars and restaurants in Cathedral Square were unable to serve the public yesterday after the decision was made to close due to the burst main.

Severn Trent Water confirmed that the burst main was related to the same burst main in Sidbury and that the water had been restored to the businesses affected. 

Sam Pisani, centre manager for Cathedral Square, said the issue "affected our restaurant tenants on the busiest evening prior to Christmas".

READ MORE: Cathedral Square bars and restaurants have water restored

He said: "The incident yesterday has affected our restaurant tenants on the busiest evening prior to Christmas, due to the number of Christmas party bookings at Cathedral Square. 

"Severn Trent worked through the night to rectify the issues and we are now fully open in preparation for the rest of the weekend.

"Whilst we appreciate the speed Severn Trent worked at to fix the pipes, we hope they will now look at their infrastructure to ensure this doesn't happen again."

Severn Trent Water apologised to businesses affected by the closure and confirmed that the water supply had been restored.

READ MORE: Cathedral Square bars and restaurants closed due to burst pipe

A spokesperson for Severn Trent Water said: “We would like to offer our sincere apologies to businesses at Cathedral Square who suffered a loss of supply earlier today.

"This was related to the repair of a burst main currently underway at Sidbury. 

“Supply has now been restored and our team are continuing to work on the repair on Sidbury.

"We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused while we complete this repair.” 

Worcester News: Cathedral Square looking quiet yesterday evening. Cathedral Square looking quiet yesterday evening. (Image: Newsquest)

The Sidbury leak also caused properties in the Battenhall area to be without water on Friday morning until engineers managed to reroute water from another area.

An engineer for the water company, working on Bath Road, confirmed that the supply had since been reestablished after being rerouted from another area.

He said Severn Trent was dealing with at least 30 burst mains across Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

And more are expected to burst, as the rise in temperatures forecast for early next week could cause ground movement and more cracked pipes.

Severn Trent is asking its customers to be on the lookout for leaks in and around the home over the next few days.

We have contacted businesses affected by the closure for more.