Blitz spirit in villages in Kent and Sussex without water for days

A fete in Kent is going ahead despite villagers having had no fresh water supplies since Monday.

Residents in Benenden are among those across Kent and Sussex whose water supplies have been cut off, or restricted.

South East Water said villagers would see their water supplies returned overnight, but many say they are still without water for a sixth day.

Councillor Michael Lunn said there was a "blitz spirit" in the village.

"The spirit of the people in the community has been absolutely fantastic, the volunteers who have been delivering water to the vulnerable," he told BBC Breakfast.

"I regard it as the blitz spirit - it is the community coming together in a crisis. But people are tired and want some answers."

He said: "We get false promises from South East Water."

South East Water has urged customers to only use water for essential purposes, and has now issued an immediate ban on hosepipes and sprinklers.

"How can they save water if they've got no water," Mr Lunn said.

Water supply issues are still affecting customers in the Wadhurst and Mayfield areas, and in the Biddenden and Staplehurst area, according to South East Water's website.

South East Water said: "Water supply is being restored to affected customers in Sussex and Kent today and tomorrow [Saturday and Sunday]. Due to high demand the use of a hose pipe is now restricted until further notice in Kent and Sussex.

"The demand for water is currently higher than the amount we can treat and supply," the company has said.

Over the last week, the outage has affected areas including Rotherfield, Mayfield, Tunbridge Wells, Crowborough and Wadhurst, with supplies cut off, or water pressure reduced.

Up to 4,000 customers have been without water or have been experienced low pressure since Monday due to supply issues.

Bottled water stations have been opened at Mayfield Memorial Hall, Rotherfield Village Hall, Sparrows Green Recreation Ground in Wadhurst and Headcorn Aerodrome in Ashford.

Douglas Whitfield, South East Water's director of operations, told BBC Radio Kent the hot weather had caused demand to outstrip supply.

"We are pumping as much water as we can into the system, but water is being used before it gets to those customers who are currently on the end of our system," he said.

Lucy Barron-Reid, owner of the Bull at Benenden, said: "It's been so very difficult. We've had to completely adapt again.

"We had this for five days in December in another really busy time.

"We've had to bring in drinking water to take upstairs to fill up the tanks so we've got hot water so we can wash our hands," she told the BBC.

"We're having to borrow water from neighbours.

"We're flushing loos from bottled water bought from supermarkets, but that's all we can do. We've got to keep going - we can't close."

South East Water experienced supply issues in December 2022 after pipes burst due to snow and ice thawing rapidly overnight, leaving thousands of households across Kent and Sussex without water before Christmas.

A government minister told the provider earlier this year that it "must act urgently" to significantly improve its performance.

Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].