Thousands of Surrey residents are still without water after a water treatment plant technical issue caused a major incident.

As a result of Storm Ciarán, Thames Water apologised for the issues at Shalford treatment works in Guildford.

Waverley Council leader Paul Follows said it had been challenging to obtain “basic information” from the water company.

According to him, about 10 to 12,000 people were affected by the issue on Monday.

A majority of Thames Water customers should have their supplies restored within 24 hours, the company said.

I have certainly got questions for the county for not declaring a major incident much earlier and I will certainly have questions for our MP about the state of water infrastructure in the local area.

Tim Oliver, Surrey County Council’s leader, announced on Sunday that the county’s Local Resilience Forum had declared a major incident.

According to him, all agencies will continue to work closely with Thames Water and support residents in affected areas.

Thames Water has 28 tankers that deliver supplies to local hospitals and other businesses 24/7, said David Bird, retail director.

In his words: “We have been delivering water to more than 100,000 customers.”.

All vulnerable customers on our priority services list received water before the supply actually ran out. We have been replenishing those supplies, and we will continue to do so.”

It was announced Monday that Godalming College and Godalming Junior School would be closed for the day.

The Surrey County Council has advised parents to refer to individual school websites for the latest information.