'Get it fixed' - anger as water outages continue

Homes and schools in the Tonbridge area remain without water as outages in west Kent continue.

A power cut on Saturday shut down a water treatment works that supplies 5,000 properties in Sevenoaks, Hildenborough, Bidborough and Tonbridge.

South East Water's operations director Douglas Whitfield told BBC Radio Kent it hoped to get the system "back to life" on Wednesday.

However, at 20:30 GMT some customers were still without water.

The company said drinking water storage tanks in the area were showing "positive signs of recovery", which meant supplies should return to many customers in the evening.

"We're still working hard to clear remaining air locks impacting other parts of Tonbridge and this will continue overnight to restore supplies as quickly as possible", the spokesperson added.

Residents have expressed their frustration and anger and called on the supplier to sort the problems urgently.

Mr Whitfield said power had been returned to the works on Monday and engineers were working on recharging and handling pockets of air in the system to restore water.

He said: "Presuming nothing else fails and we get no more bursts, that system should come back to life as we go through the day [on Wednesday]."

South East Water's incident support manager Michael Pickard said he hoped to see another 1,000 properties get their water supply back on Wednesday afternoon but could not be certain when.

He said: "We have had some issues with water locks. We can only restore those in a slow and steady process, we do not want to further disturb the network or create any bursts and outages that will further impede our ability to supply our network."

But for some, it's too little too late.

Imtiaz Mohammad and Sushant Bali live in Tonbridge had to borrow a trolley from a nearby supermarket to take home bottles from the water station on Morley Road.

Mr Bali said: "It's quite inconvenient, especially when you have a family of kids at home and you're not sure if the water quality coming from the taps is drinkable or not."

Sonia and Stephen Cook live next to Bloodshots Reservoir and have been without water.

Mr Cook told South East Water to "get it fixed".

He said: "Toilet flushing is done with rainwater at the moment. The water butt is about half empty now."

Tonbridge resident Brian Blanchard is without water and said he was disgusted with South East Water and local MPs.

Mr Blanchard is in the middle of getting a new bathroom and said he had to stand builders down.

His partner Louise Makepeace said: "South East Water should fix the problem now.

"Life without water is a massive inconvenience and it makes you feel unclean."

Louise Taylor has been collecting rainwater to use in her home in Tonbridge.

"Fortunately we have water butts in our front and back gardens which we are getting water from to flush toilets," she said.

"You realise how much water you use each day when you have to fill buckets and get bottles to drink."

On Tuesday the MP for Tonbridge Tom Tugendhat called the outage "unacceptable".

He told BBC South East he intended to "keep the pressure on" water companies.

A number of schools in Tonbridge have made the decision to close on Wednesday.

The Judd School in south Tonbridge closed on Wednesday due to "continuing unresolved" water supply issues.

Somerhill School said it was shutting for the day as it was without toilet and kitchen facilities.

Tonbridge Grammar School, Weald of Kent Grammar School and Leigh Academy have also shut for the day.

South East Water set up two water stations in Speldhurst and Tonbridge on Wednesday and is delivering to vulnerable customers on the Priority Services Register (PRS).

The supplier has also said it is looking into how compensation for affected customers will work.

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