THE very cold winter weather which began in December has been blamed for a big increase in the number of burst water pipes in the St Albans district. According to Three Valleys Water Company data, the number of bursts in Harpenden and St Albans during a

THE very cold winter weather which began in December has been blamed for a big increase in the number of burst water pipes in the St Albans district.

According to Three Valleys Water Company data, the number of bursts in Harpenden and St Albans during an average winter would be about 12 and 22 respectively.

But with the coldest winter temperatures for 17 years, Three Valleys Water attended 24 bursts in Harpenden and 38 in St Albans during December 2008 and January 2009.

These do not include the spate of burst pipes following the heavy snow and plunging temperatures in the first weeks of February. In many cases work to repair those latest leaks has not begun.

A Three Valleys Water spokesperson said that most of the earlier bursts occurred in the first couple of weeks of the year and added: "The cause of each specific burst is not known but during cold weather there can be some ground movement which causes pipes to burst."

She added: "Extra staff worked around the clock during this period to carry out additional repairs. We would like to apologise to any customers who were inconvenienced by these bursts.