A SCHOOL was forced to close as hundreds of homes and premises in Colne had their water supplies cut off or suffered pressure problems.

The difficulties were caused by a power surge which disabled the two main pumps serving the town centre, causing water supplies to be cut off or lowered in pressure yesterday morning.

Colne Christ Church CE Primary School was forced to close for the day because the water supply was off and many town centre businesses and households were affected.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council education said the Keighley Road primary school had no choice but to close for the day after staff discovered the taps had run dry when they arrived at the premises.

A United Utilities spokesman said they were alerted at 6.30am of supply problems in the BB8 area and sent a specialist team to reset the pumps so supplies could be returned to normal.

He said: “The pumps, which serve the town centre, were reported to have stopped working early on Friday after they were ‘tripped’ by a power surge.

“We diverted some other water supply pipes to help but numerous properties and businesses lost supply or had lower pressure.

“The reason was a power surge, very much like the ones we have at home where the simple solution is to flick a fuse switch to restore power.

“With these pumps there is a bit more to getting them operational again so a team was sent to re-set them.”

The problem was resolved and supplies returned to normal by lunch-time.