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17,000 properties remain without water in Kent and Sussex on fifth day

South East Water has blamed the latest supply failure on Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts.

By contributor Stanley Murphy-Johns, Press Association
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Supporting image for story: 17,000 properties remain without water in Kent and Sussex on fifth day
South East Water staff hand out bottled water at a water station in Maidstone (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Approximately 17,000 properties remain without drinking water across Kent and Sussex for a fifth day, South East Water (SEW) confirmed.

The company has blamed the latest supply failure, which comes after a similar incident in December, on Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts.

Water has been returned to 8,000 customers across the two counties, but thousands of people are now starting a fifth day without water.

South East Water customers collect bottled water at a water station in East Grinstead
South East Water customers collect bottled water at a water station in East Grinstead (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Kent County Council (KCC) said the vast majority of schools are open on Wednesday, although some may close early if they run out of water.

Some schools across Sussex have remained closed today, West Sussex County Council confirmed.

South East Water’s incident manager Matthew Dean said: “Once again, we are very sorry to all our customers who have been affected.

“We know and understand how difficult going without water for such a long period of time is and how difficult it makes everyday life.”

In a similar incident last month, 24,000 properties in and around Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were left without drinkable water for almost two weeks.

SEW chief executive David Hinton was grilled by MPs for his company’s handling of that crisis last week.

On Tuesday, Alistair Carmichael, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said he and his colleagues remained “deeply sceptical” about SEW’s version of events presented to MPs last week.

He indicated that they plan to recall Mr Hinton and the chairman of SEW, Chris Train, to provide further evidence to the committee.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
David Hinton, chief executive of South East Water, appearing before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA)

Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells Mike Martin has been calling for Mr Hinton to resign for more than a month.

Other politicians have voiced their dissatisfaction as well, and on Tuesday KCC leader Linden Kemkaran said “heads must roll” as a result of the ongoing outages.

An SEW spokesperson said: “We have fully complied with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s request for information to date and we will continue to provide any further information requested.

“This will include attending any further meetings that are required.”

The company has said supplies will continue to be returned to people in Kent and Sussex throughout the day.

The majority of those still affected are in East Grinstead, East Sussex, where approximately 11,500 properties remain without water.

Bottled water stations remain in place in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Maidstone, and location details can be found on SEW’s website.