A county councillor is investigating after a water company closed Sawbridgeworth’s main shopping street without informing Hertfordshire Highways.

Cllr Eric Buckmaster, who is Hertfordshire county councillor for Sawbridgeworth, hit out at Affinity Water after part of Bell Street was closed on Sunday for workers to fix a leak.

He posted the town’s Facebook group that workers had “turned up without warning and closed the road”, adding he would be investigating the matter.

He said there were lots of vehicles in the Bell Street car park for a bowls club event and the company had not put traffic management in place to reverse the one-way system, adding it was “not helpful, as usual”.

It emerged that some residents in the area had been informed and that a post on the Facebook group had alerted others to the work.

One resident posted a notice from Affinity Water alerting her to the work to replace a pipe “depending on emergency works and permit approval”, adding the work would take one day.

But Cllr Buckmaster disputed that the work to fix the leak, which has been an issue for some months, was an emergency, meaning Affinity had to seek prior approval from the county council’s highways department before starting work.

He posted: “This is about lack of safety. Fixing the water leak was long overdue. They should have set up proper traffic management, and manually.”

But some residents questioned whether it was a safety issue and welcomed the leak finally being fixed.

Cllr Buckmaster, who is executive member for the environment at County Hall and is also a district and town councillor, has been critical of the water company before, branding them a “law unto themselves”.

In May he slammed the firm after workers closed Station Road outside Dorrington’s bakery. He said workers had “turned up, dug a hole and left”, adding there was no explanatory signage and no one working.