Water boss cannot guarantee homes will be reconnected by Christmas

Some properties in Kent and East Sussex are still without water, with the boss of South East Water unable to guarantee all homes will be reconnected by Christmas.

The company said supplies were due to return on Friday morning but some customers said their water was still off.

Outages have been reported in Staplehurst, Wadhurst and Hartfield.

The supplier has now said it will look at compensating customers.

Bottled water stations at the Tesco Superstore in Pembury and Crowborough Beacon Academy are to reopen on Saturday morning.

South East Water said it expected all customers in East Sussex to be back in supply on Friday morning.

They also said in the Tunbridge Wells area the water network had continued to fill overnight and all customers "should have water".

However, customers in Southborough said they had no supply on Friday morning.

Gail Weightman told the BBC: "I don't know what South East [Water] are telling you but there is no water in Southborough this morning.

"They should just be truthful. There is something very wrong going on when my neighbours report no water and they are being told by South East Water that they don't know why that is."

Douglas Whitfield, South East Water's Incident Director, responded: "We have continued to maintain water supplies to the majority of Tunbridge Wells overnight.

"We are aware some customers in the Southborough area have been experiencing low water pressure which is a result of our team carrying out repairs and maintenance to our network of pipes.

"We expect all customers in Southborough to have their normal water pressure later this [Friday] morning."

South East Water said it expected all customers in East Sussex to be back in supply on Friday morning.

In an interview with BBC Radio Kent, Mr Whitfield, committed to compensating customers.

"Compensation is what we'll start to look at now. We're hoping to send some communication out to customers this side of Christmas explaining what the process will be."

Appearing on BBC South East Today, Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark said it was "completely unacceptable".

The MP criticised the communication from South East Water and said the distribution of water supplies had been "inconsistent" and, at times, "completely chaotic".

He said there needed to be a "reckoning" and residents needed confidence in the future that "this is not going to happen again".

Also on BBC South East Today, Councillor Ben Chapelard said he wanted to see "lessons learned".

"This was entirely preventable had there been appropriate investment in the water system," he said, adding that issues had been "ongoing" for residents for weeks and months.

South East Water said the underground drinking water storage tanks were at more than 60% capacity in Tunbridge Wells, and the network was continuing to fill.

"Customers in Tunbridge Wells should now have seen their water supply return.

"If your water supply has not yet returned, it may be due to localised air locks in the system. Our technicians are working to resolve these as quickly as we can."

The company said in Sussex the network in Cottage Hill was recharging.

"Water will be returning throughout the course of today. We're working to remove localised airlocks in the system as quickly as we can."

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