A BURST water pipe in Shipley which caused long delays in multiple directions this morning has now been fixed.

The affected water main was on the A657, Briggate at Fox Corner which caused traffic issues at the road's junction with Otley Road.

Yorkshire Water were made aware of the issue and sent a team out as quickly as possible.

At 3:17pm a spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said: "For health and safety reasons we had to install three way traffic lights. We are pleased to say that we have carried out some repairs and the traffic lights have been removed." 

The team found another leak but will return this evening for further repairs to avoid as much disruption as possible. 

At its peak this morning, travel time sat at around 45 minutes, with heavy traffic building on A650, Bradford Road as people tried to escape the initial congestion.

One motorist caught in the traffic said a major issue was the junction was continually being blocked as traffic passed through which added to delays.

He said at the time: "Cars are queued back as far as Tesco on Valley Road coming out of Bradford."

The burst occurred on a diversion route for a number of roadworks currently ongoing in the area, which worsened traffic issues further. 

Several bus services were impacted included those run by The Keighley Bus Company and First West Yorkshire.

The Record Cafe owner, Keith Wildman tweeted at the time: "What the hell’s going on in Shipley? Completely gridlocked in every direction. Sidestreets. The lot. Never seen anything like it."

Yorkshire Water confirmed that bursts have increased due to the hot weather, with the ground drying out causing earth movements and some pipes to crack.

The spokesperson said: "In response, we have ramped up our resource and have around 150 leakage repair teams out on the streets repairing leaks as quickly as possible to help protect supplies.

“We take leakage extremely seriously and will spend £75m this year on preventing and fixing leaks."