South East Water customers in Tunbridge Wells still face disruption

Water supplies have been restored to most affected customers in parts of Kent and East Sussex, but many people could still face disruption, South East Water (SEW) has said.

About 6,500 homes and businesses in south Tunbridge Wells and Frant were without water on Wednesday after leaks and bursts reduced pressure across the network.

The water company said storage tanks serving the area recovered overnight, allowing booster pumps to be restarted on Thursday morning, but warned of the risk of intermittent supplies.

It comes after 24,000 properties in the area lost supply or pressure for days between November and December following a water quality issue at a treatment works in Pembury.

Customers in the Kent village of Bidborough are continuing to experience intermittent supplies on Thursday, with tankers being used to inject water into the local pipeline network, SEW said.

Incident manager Mike Court said: “While the picture is improving as leaks get repaired, there is a risk customers could see intermittent supplies later this afternoon if demand for water outstrips the amount we can pump into the network.”

He apologised to customers and businesses affected by the outage, saying he understood how disruptive interruptions to supply could be.

SEW said bottled water was being delivered to priority customers.

Deborah Parks, who lives in Frant, told BBC Radio Sussex that she had low pressure and a “dribble” coming through but many of her neighbours were cut off.

She said: “I’m fortunate to be at the bottom of a large hill so our pressure maintains a bit longer than other people, but I have no confidence that it won’t just fizzle out again.”

She added: “None of this is new. All of this is predictable. All of it could have been handled much, much better.”

Two bottled water stations have also been opened as a precaution at Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club and Bidborough Village Hall between 09:00 GMT and 21:00.

The water company said customers could check its online interactive map for the latest updates on water supplies in their area.

Following the previous water outage in Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Eridge and Frant, SEW boss David Hinton – who earns a base salary of £400,000 and got a £115,000 bonus last year – was grilled by MPs on Tuesday about the crisis.

He has previously vowed to remain in his post despite calls from Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin to resign.