A BURST water main remained unfixed for ten weeks on a Ryedale country lane.

The issue meant that water was flowing down a road between Cropton and Lastingham for around two months - at a time when water companies are issuing advice on how to save water during the current drought.

Local resident Graham Knights, who reported the leak, said that he first got in touch with Yorkshire Water in late April.

He said he had reported the issue four times to the company, and that there were several visits by engineers and contractors, but still the leak wasn’t fixed.

He said: “The water was probably equivalent to two hosepipes running constantly - multiplied by ten weeks.

“It’s not acceptable really. We’re in one of the driest periods in years and there’s water gushing down the road.”

He said he thought there was a mismatch between advice being issued by water companies and their “cavalier” attitude to water wastage.

“This isn’t good enough,” he added.

Asked about the leak by the Gazette & Herald, a spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said on Friday: “We take the issue of leakages extremely seriously which is why we have as many teams fixing them now as we did during the ‘Beast from the East’.

“Since the start of April we have fixed over 6500 leaks and hired an extra 200 leakage inspectors.

“During the hot weather we see more leaks due to the extra work the pipes have to do.

“We would like to thank the customer for contacting us regarding this leak and we will be on site Monday to fix it.”

Mr Knights confirmed yesterday the leak had been fixed. He said the work had taken around two hours.

According to data from a nearby weather station at nearby Rosedale Abbey, available on the Wunderground website, there was just 1.5mm of rain in the month of June, and none in July at the time of writing.

The Yorkshire Water website is currently advising customers to “use water wisely” during the summer months.

On July 3, Yorkshire Water revealed that daily water consumption has increased by up to an extra 200 million litres: more water than the whole of Leeds consumes in one day.

It added that in response, it enacted its contingency plans and increased water production capacity.

It added that reservoir levels in the region are “normal for this time of year”.

The last time Yorkshire saw a hosepipe ban was more than 20 years ago.