WATER company bosses said work that caused traffic chaos in the town was vital otherwise fire safety equipment at Warrington Hospital would have been without water.

Mark Donaghy, from United Utilities, apologised and said repairs to a burst water pipe on the Pink Eye roundabout on Friday could not have been delayed.

He said: “We’re very sorry for the extra time this repair added to people’s journeys.

“We appreciate how frustrating this must have been.

“Unfortunately, this was an emergency repair and couldn’t wait until after rush hour.

“If we had, thousands of people, including Warrington Hospital, would have started having problems with their water supply.”

According to Warrington Borough Council, 2,500 homes could have been left without water following the ‘major’ burst.

A spokesman said: “ It was imperative that work was started on the Thursday evening and continued throughout the night until completion.”

The repair work saw two lanes closed on Liverpool Road, with a lane also closed on Priestley Street.

Congestion in the town caused huge problems on the roads. It saw queues build up throughout Warrington, with delays of several hours reported.

An accident on the M6 meant more vehicles attempted to cut through the town, adding to traffic.

Public transport was also badly effected.

Bosses at Network Warrington apologised and said services were ‘severely disrupted’ as a result of the water main repairs.

Ann Marie Slavin, interim managing director, said: "We are used to traffic in Warrington being heavier than normal on Friday afternoons.

However, last Friday the congestion in the town centre meant that all of our services were severely disrupted.

“All our available resources were deployed and many of our drivers stayed late in order to keep services running.

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience, our drivers and service managers for their commitment, and apologise to any passengers who experienced long delays, which were due to circumstances completely out of our control.”

Many residents contacted the Warrington Guardian to complain, with comments also left on social networks.