Drivers are warned to leave extra time for their journey after a water pipe burst last night.

At 11pm a 12 inch pipe burst on the Tonbridge Road junction with Fountain Lane in Maidstone.

South East Water closed the road to fix the spillage.

The road was reopened this morning just before 6am, with temporary traffic lights installed for most of the morning.

The burst is not being linked to a sinkhole which closed the same stretch of road earlier this year.

Regional network manager Jenny Rhodes said: “We worked very hard throughout the night to keep disruption to a minimum after a burst on a 12 inch diameter cast iron main.

"We managed to carry out the repair under three-way lights and are now in the process of putting the carriageway back to normal. Obviously, this will take a bit of time, but again we are working as quickly as possible. The traffic management is needed to keep the public and workforce safe while we on site.

"We are investigating the cause of the burst, but do not believe at this stage it was related to the problems in the area earlier this year.

"We know how disruptive burst water mains can be and unfortunately they do happen on our network, which has 9,000 miles of underground pipeline transporting 517 million litres of water a day. There are also six million joints which have to withstand high pressure 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Inevitably sometimes these pipes and connections fail, but we work around the clock to repair them as quickly as possible."