TRAFFIC chaos was caused yesterday when a sewage pipe burst causing delays of up to an hour for motorists.

Routine repairs were being carried out by United Utilities on Bacup Road, Waterfoot, to re-line the sewers as part of work in waste water management.

Helen Lord a United Utilities spokesperson said: "In order to carry out the re-lining of the sewer we shut them down and put in pumps from one man hole to another.

"That would have normally gone very smoothly but the very heavy cloud burst on Thursday night meant that the pumps couldn't take it and burst, hence the flooding into gardens in about ten or 11 homes.

"All the gardens and one home was flooded. The property and all the rest of the neighbouring gardens were fully sterilised and all the solids have been removed.

"Health is not an issue in this case as all the proper measures have been carried out to ensure proper sanitation in the area.

"We apologise for this inconvenience and hope to have it resolved as soon as we possibly can."

PC Ian Roberts of Burnley Police said: "There are already road works along Bacup Road which have been causing hold ups for the traffic, but this just made everything ten times worse for motorists. People were in traffic jams for more than an hour."