A BURST pipe left roads and gardens in Welland flooded as the water flowed for almost an hour.

Routine work on a leak which had been reported two days earlier caused the main to rupture at around 10.15am on Monday (July 1), catching Severn Trent workers by surprise.

The equipment required to shut off the supply was not available until an inspector arrived at the scene 45 minutes later.

By that time, the water had flooded several gardens on the Gloucester road.

The incident, on the edge of Castlemorton Common, was the second of its kind in the Malvern area in two weeks. Last week, an elderly Malvern resident had her flat flooded when a main burst in Thirlstane Road.

Walter Beardsley, 76, said he reported a minor leak near his home in Welland on Saturday (June 29) but no work was carried out over the weekend.

"They turned up on Monday morning but the leak got worse," he said.

"They start digging and they've got no authority or no equipment to turn the water off in case of an emergency.

"For 45 minutes the water was flowing down the road and into my property. For confined residents it could have been quite disastrous."

Mr Beardsley's sister and neighbour Betty Taylor, 74, said her garden had also been flooded.

"It's pretty outrageous, the water was up to my front step," she said. "It just seemed outrageous that they couldn't do anything about it."

Caroline Hosie, spokesman for Severn Trent Water, confirmed that there had been a breakdown in communication within the company.

"We're going to look into why that happened because it's not good enough," she said.