Sewage floods Headingley Pre-School for second time in a fortnight causing '£35k of damage'

Headingley Pre-School on Burton Cresent in North Leeds, which operates as a charity, has around 45 young children registered but will be closed for the foreseeable future after it was struck by two floods in the space of a fortnight.

The first flood took place when a pipe under the road outside became blocked two weeks ago, causing sewage into the building.

The school, which has been rated as outstanding by Ofsted, had to close and a large scale clean-up operation got underway, costing around £2,500.

But when Charity Manager Clare Bligh turned up to the premises a fortnight later, she was devastated to see that the school had flooded again.

She estimates that the floods have cost the charity around £35,000 in damages all together.

Clare said: "On January 10 the first flood damaged the whole pre-school.

"Yorkshire Water are aware of the issue, it's a blocked pipe on Burton Cresent in Headingley.

"We had to pay a £2,500 bill to have the whole school cleaned and sanitised as it's sewage water - it had to be cleaned right the way through.

"Then I came in last Monday (January 28) and it had happened again, but even worse.

"We will now be closed for the foreseeable future.

"It's not our fault, but as a registered charity we are losing out on a lot of money while we're closed and a lot of families are affected by it."

The charity also has a school on Wood Lane in Headingley.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We are already engaging with customers who have unfortunately been affected by sewer flooding on Burton Crescent and intend to arrange a repair of the sewer on the street as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we would like to apologise to those affected by this distressing incident.”