A nursery is still mopping up the cost of a massive pipe burst that wrecked the business and left thousands of homes temporarily without water.

Cemetery Road has remained closed to traffic since it happened in December, hitting businesses hard.

Among those worst hit was Peter Spencer, who owns Piccolo Nursery, and who is now estimating a £500,000 repair and refurbishment bill that he will have to claim on his insurance.

Yorkshire Water bosses blamed the cold snap for the 30-inch pipe burst which shot water and road debris more than 50ft in the air.

The leak, between Duncombe Road, Birks Fold and Northside Road, also knocked out a connecting 11-inch main, damaged a gas pipe and cut off supplies to 42 properties.

It left Piccolo Nursery waist-high in water with staff having to carry out an emergency evacuation.

At first, Cemetery Road was expected to be opened by Christmas Day, but as the scale of repairs became evident, the date was put back.

March was also given as a re-opening date, but Yorkshire Water said the road could now stay closed until after Easter and possibly until May.

A company spokesman said it was working hard to get repairs finished so the road could open again, but dealing with the longer-term effects has been a challenge because of other specialist partners being involved.

“It’s not just us,” he said. “There are the electrical and gas repairs as well. It’s difficult working round the hole and working round each other, but we’re all doing our best.”

He also said they were doing their utmost to keep residents and businesses informed of what is happening.

He added: “Significant additional work on electricity cables will need to be completed before the area will be safe for further work on the broken utilities, and estimates suggest it could be May before Cemetery Road is re-open to traffic.”

Restoring the electricity is the first priority with repairs to the sewer and water mains to follow. News of May as a possible re-opening date has been met with caution by Mr Spencer, who said: “I’ll believe it when I see it. They’ve kept putting it back.”

Only six of the youngsters who attended his nursery have moved to the other branches in Shipley and Saltaire, all the others have gone elsewhere. And he said all 42 of the children due to start at the Cemetery Road branch in February went to other nurseries.

Despite having to shut, he kept on the eight staff by relocating them, and they will return to Bradford when the nursery opens again sometime in July.

“We lost absolutely everything. All our equipment, the toys, the computers. Nothing could be kept because of contamination risks. All our brilliant staff could save was the children – they did a fantastic job.”

Mr Spencer said other businesses were also suffering, including some who were not touched by the water.

“The road being closed is making difficult times even harder for some.”