Residents in Blackburn have been left feeling 'flabbergasted' after a water leak has been ongoing in their area for more than three weeks.

Henry Brett, 61, a resident of Whinney Lane, said himself and residents don't understand why United Utilities have left a fresh water leak for so long on their street, as well as another in Quebec Road which has been ongoing for around four or five weeks.

He said the leak is now causing potholes which were not there before and he is worried there could be a possible sink hole.

United Utilities has apologised for the delay and said it will be on site today fixing the leaks.

Henry said: “This leak started about three and a half weeks ago now and it just started off as a small leak, but as water has come up from underneath it has broken the tarmac.

“The leak is still going and there are big potholes forming now, eventually there will be a sink hole there if they don’t do something about it.

“The cars are going across it, the lorries, and the buses, and it’s breaking the tarmac so there are holes now, big potholes that are now filling with water and of course cars are driving over them and making them worse.

“It’s now coming up in various places rather than the one place where it started.

“As time has gone by the United Utilities guys have come out and they have marked one of the areas where it is bubbling up under the ground, they had a look at it and took some pictures and kind of scratched their heads, about two weeks ago, got back in their van and they disappeared.

“We haven’t seen them since and people have been emailing councillors, United Utilities and I took a video of it and put in on YouTube.

“I could leave my taps running 24 hours a day and I wouldn’t waste as much water.

“I keep seeing adverts where we are being asked to save water and, on the news, I see that Cornwall and some parts of the South have hosepipe bans.

“I wonder what those people would make of this.

“Shame on United Utilities for wasting so much fresh water in these drought times.

“All the residents can’t understand why they are not coming to fix it seeing as there is a water shortage.

“So, we are just a bit flabbergasted really.

“We just want them to fix it.”

A spokesperson for United Utilities said: “Our teams will be at the leak locations today, Tuesday September 13, to carry out the repairs.

“We are sorry for the delay in completing the work, which was a result of having to prioritise our resources across the area, and for any inconvenience caused.”