Nusrat Ghani MP has today issued a statement in response to the South East Water outages that have hit both Kent and Sussex.
I am aware of yet another series of incidents and disruptions to water supply across Sussex Weald. Sadly, we are all too familiar with South East Water letting down their customers.
This is just another incident, in a long line of continuous failures, where residents are left without water. I did all I could to fight for compensation for you in the past, and I will continue to fight your corner now.
I have been in continuous communication with SEW CEO and attended Strategic Response Group meetings chaired by DEFRA Minister over the weekend and today. I have raised issues in Frant, Eridge, Hellingly, Lower Horsebridge and Crowborough.
The reasons for the disruptions are two-fold:
- Following a series of burst water mains in Sussex, service reservoirs have begun to run to very low levels of storage, resulting in water supply disruption in Frant, Bells Yew Green, Wych Cross and parts of Crowborough.
- Burst water main in Lower Horsebridge meant that water supply was also disrupted to households in Lower Dicker, and parts of Hellingly and Hailsham.
It is my understanding that Crowborough is now off the list of at-risk areas and that water supply has been restored in Lower Horsebridge and Hellingly. Issues in Tunbridge Wells persist, which might have impact on a handful of households, but the supply to the majority of homes in Frant and Eridge should be restored.
SEW confirmed that they are working with Wealden District Council and East Sussex County Council, who hold lists of vulnerable customers and are responsible of communicating updates locally and co-ordinating response.
I have stressed to SEW leaders the importance of having these lists up to date and unified across stakeholders to ensure that nobody is left behind and water is delivered to them as a priority.
This is a very fast-moving situation, and I am doing all I can to collect the information available. However, as your service provider, if you do have any immediate concerns, please raise these directly with South East Water, or contact them to be added to the list.
Kent has struggled for days without water and East Grinstead has had 16,000 houses without water, so I have been holding my breath to see how terrible our water supply would be.
Ironically, this coming Sunday, 18th January, will mark six months since South East Water imposed a hosepipe ban on parts of Sussex and Kent. While water bills soar, our services get worse. South East Water continue to fail us and it is time they took responsibility and invested into their infrastructure to ensure the quality of service that its customers deserve.
