TAP water was reduced to a trickle for hundreds of residents and businesses in parts of Wirral today – but engineers say the supply should be returning to normal now.

Engineers from United Utlities have been working all day to fix the problem affecting the supply in the Thurstaston, Barnston and Irby areas.

At 11.30am, the company alerted people living in the CH61 postcode area that they may experience water coming out of their taps slower than usual.

The statement said: “You may have noticed that the water is coming out of your tap slower than usual or may have gone off altogether. We have one of our inspectors looking into this at the moment and as soon as we know what the cause of the problem is we’ll let you know.

“We’re sorry about this and will try and get your taps flowing normally as quickly as we can. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we know what’s causing the problem.”

An hour lated, an update was posted saying the fault was proving more problematic than expected.

But at 1.45pm, United Utilities updated residents to let them know that the fault had been detected.

The water supply should be returning to normal, but some people might find that the water from their taps is cloudy or discoloured.

The statement read: “We have found a technical fault on our water mains network in your area which was causing the problem with your water supply. Our engineers have now rectified the issue and supplies should be returning to normal. We’re sorry if this has affected you and thank you for your patience.

“Because there’s been some disturbance to the pipes in your area you may notice the water is a little cloudy or discoloured, please check our Discoloured Water page for more information.”

Visit https://www.unitedutilities.com/services/your-water-supply/drinking-water-quality/discoloured-water/ for more information.