A water company has announced that a burst main which caused gridlocked traffic in a town centre has now been fixed.

Temporary traffic lights are in force along Station Road in Ashford after an eight-inch water main burst on Saturday.

South East Water have repaired the structure, but temporary traffic measures will remain in place until road resurfacing works are completed.

People arriving into Ashford from the A251 yesterday during rush hour complained of standstill traffic into the town centre and along Canterbury Road.

Operation Brock, which came into force on the M20 yesterday morning, caused further delays in the town after work overran to implement the contraflow system between Junction 8 and Junction 9.

Highways England has since confirmed that Operation Brock will be stood down as soon as possible after the EU confirmed a three-month extension to the Brexit deadline.

Mark Rice, distribution manager at South East Water, said: “An eight inch water main burst in Station Road, Ashford on Saturday, October 26 and the complex repair has now been completed.

“While we are reinstating the road surface, we have temporary traffic lights in place which are manually controlled between 7am and 7pm.

“We are doing all we can to keep disruption to a minimum and want to thank motorists for their patience and understanding.

“Unfortunately leaks and bursts do happen on our high pressure, extensive underground network which carries 520 million litres of water every day through 9,000 miles of mains and more than six million joints.

"Sometimes those pipes and joints fail, but we work around the clock to find and fix leaks and bursts."

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