United Utilities has confirmed the network which emptied impacting water supplies for around 8,000 properties in Eden Valley is now refilled - the problem occurred after Storm Ciara severely damaged one of the water pipes near Shap.

Martin Padley, Water Service Director at United Utilities, said:

“The damaged caused presented us with very significant challenges and we have had over 500 members of staff working around the clock to either repair the damaged pipe or helping to reduce the impact as much as possible on customers.

"Treacherous weather conditions have not helped the situation, but we would like to thank the community for bearing with us. In particular the kindness shown to our teams on site and how people have helped each other with the bottled water supplies.”

The cold weather hampered activities, particularly welding the pipework. As engineers battled to fix the pipe, over 144,000 litres of bottled water was made available across the impacted area and a fleet of 45 mobile water tankers were used to pump water into the local water network and help maintain some water supplies.

United Utilities sent an email, text or voice message to every customer within the area who were expected to be affected.

The water company also set up a special helpline for 70-plus farmers and put a dedicated team in place to make sure livestock had access to water supplies during the incident.