TWO hundred water mains across the region are bursting each day because of the big freeze – more than five times the average for the time of year.

Yorkshire Water said yesterday it was working flat out to repair the bursts, but the exceptionally large number meant it was having to prioritise call-outs to deal with the most serious ones first.

His comments came after Liz Edge, a resident of Parkside Close, off Acomb Road, in Holgate, York, complained a mains pipe in the road had still not been repaired, ten days after it had burst.

The former York councillor said water from the pipe had spilt down the road and frozen over, creating a dangerous sheet of ice.

She said residents began reporting the burst on Christmas Day, and had been told it would be fixed within 48 hours.

The Yorkshire Water spokesman said: “We would like to reassure customers that we will get to smaller bursts and that we’re working flat out to respond to these as quickly as possible.”

He said the York area normally got about six bursts a week, but was currently seeing about 30 a week.

He said the problem lay with older metal pipes, which tended to crack and burst in extreme conditions, unlike the plastic pipes which were installed nowadays.