A BURST flooded Market Street, Atherton, on Friday - and left homes, businesses and schools without water all day.

Hesketh Fletcher High shut up shop and so did Boots and a nearby bank after employees and pupils turned up for work to find the street had been turned into a river thanks to the break near the Post Office.

Where I was mooching at the other end of town, gasping shopworkers were complaining about not being able to have a brew for hours.

You'd have thought someone from the traders' association or United Utilities would have taken the trouble to inform them all that the water company had brought in two emergency supply tanks for the use of...