Schools reopen after all water supplies restored

Schools have reopened after teams worked "very hard" to restore water supplies following a burst main on Sunday, South West Water (SWW) has said.

The water company said on Thursday its network was back to normal and supply was back to what it should be.

SWW described repairing the burst main and restoring water supply to 13,000 properties in the Plymouth, Bere Alston, Yelverton and Tavistock areas, as a "complex situation".

On Thursday, local schools which had to close earlier in the week due to the water issues, said they were back open.

Whitchurch Primary School said its water supply was restored on Wednesday afternoon.

Horrabridge Primary School said on social media it now had water after SWW "fixed things overnight" and the company provided them with portable toilets on Wednesday.

"This means we will be able to use all toilets and hand washing facilities as normal, so we hope to see everyone back today", the school said.

Bere Alston Primary School also confirmed it was open after having to send students home on Wednesday when it lost its water supply.

SWW said: "Our network is back to normal, and supply is back to what it should be.

"Although this was a complex situation, our teams have worked very hard to restore supply, provide support to our customers and help with any isolated issues.

"We are very sorry this happened and really appreciate the kindness customers have shown to our teams throughout."

Following the burst main bottled water stations were set up for customers, with a fourth opening on Tuesday, and SWW confirmed on Thursday they had now been demobilised.

SWW managing director of water services David Harris said teams were still "on the ground" to deliver bottled water for customers on the priority service register.

He said the number of water bottles being collected at the stations had dropped "dramatically" on Wednesday after many customers had their supplies restored.

"We believe that we have everyone back in water and our system fully flowing and recharged," Mr Harris said.

"That's not to say though there wouldn't be the odd case of an airlock in our network - it is a very extensive network.

"There may be the odd customer who may be affected by that, in which case if they can please call us.

"We have people on the ground today again today and we will get out there as quickly as possible and fix it for those customers."

SWW also confirmed compensation for all customers impacted would be paid automatically.

Mr Harris said: "We will be notifying customers who will be paid that compensation.

"Customers don't have to do anything to receive that compensation, we will be automatically deducting that from their bill.

"If customers would prefer us to pay that compensation into their bank account, rather than a credit it to their bill, they just need to simply call us and we will pay it that way."

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].