HOMES and businesses in the centre of Blackburn were left without water for several hours today.

Water supplier United Utilities received 29 calls from residents and businesses, reporting no water and low pressure from 10am.

The water company investigated and found a fault with a pressure valve in Haslingden Road.

Water was restored just after 3pm but United Utilities was unable to confirm how many people had been affected in total.

A spokesman from the supplier said: “We received a lot of calls about this incident from 10am this morning when people reported having no water and low pressure in their homes.

“We attended the scene and our engineers discovered that there was a fault with a pressure valve.

“We were able to restore water shortly after 3pm but we are still on site carrying out repairs.

“We are unable to say exactly how many people were affected by the fault but it would have only affected a small section of the BB1 postcode.”