Water Crisis Continues

Pressure is growing for South East Water to be stripped of it's licence as the water crisis continues.

South East Water have admitted their plan to increase the amount of water in the local storage tank, that serves the south of Tunbridge Wells, parts of Pembury and surrounding areas including Frant, has not worked as quickly as they thought. They had expected the system to be stable by Tuesday, however, the refill is happening slower than they had hoped due to wider issues and further supply interruptions across their Kent and Sussex networks.

They have now developed a new plan that will allow them to refill the storage tank to a much higher level. This will mean keeping the booster pumps off for a further 36 hours. This is so they can work to increase the levels to a point where customers have a consistent water supply from Friday morning.

The company is now delivering water to the door of 6000 homes in the affected area in the south of Tunbridge Wells. They are launching a major operation to deliver supplies directly to every affected home: Drinking water: They will be delivering bottled water to your household. Deliveries will take place from Wednesday evening and overnight into Thursday. Customers do not need to be at home to receive this; they will leave it on your doorstep. If they can't access your front door (e.g., gated communities or blocks of flats), they will leave the delivery in the safest accessible place.

If you have told the company you are unable to physically move heavy bottles of water, they will ensure their Customer Care Team is in the area on Thursday morning to assist bringing it inside for you. You can also call them on 0800 952 4000 from 8am if you need support with this.

Toilet flushing grab bags are also being delivered to every home. Please do not drink the water that is provided in the grab bags. These are heavy duty bags with non-drinking water inside to use for flushing your toilet. They will be delivered full. You can refill these with non-drinking water from your garden water butts, ponds or other external sources, and pour them into your toilet bowl or cistern to flush it. Please do not drink water from these grab bags.

Deliveries have started immediately (you may have already received yours). If you need more bottled water, the bottled water stations remain open 9am to 10pm during this ongoing incident. South East Water are doing everything they can to keep them fully stocked. They are at Tunbridge Wells Rugby Football Club, St. Marks Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells TN2 5LS and Odeon Cinema car park, Knights Way, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 3UW - A Third bottled water station is expected to be announced on Thursday morning.

For customers in other parts of Tunbridge Wells and nearby villages including Langton and Speldhurst, South East Water says that the majority of customers now have water however those on higher ground may have intermittent supply at peak times when more water is being used. The company is sorry if you are being affected but claim they are working as quickly as we can to stabilise the network.

There are 2 bottled water stations which are open on Thursday at St. Marks Recreation Ground, Tunbridge Wells TN2 5LS and in the Car Park at Odeon Cinema, Knights Way, Tunbridge Wells TN2 3UW.

For customers in the Bidborough area the news is not so good as the company is currently unable to pump the water due to low levels at the reservoir. The company says they are working hard to fix the issue as quickly as possible using tankers to support the areas recovery.

Customers in impacted areas who are on the Priority Services Register are having bottled water delivered to them by the Customer Care Team.

For further information you can visit: https://www.southeastwater.co.uk/help/works-and-outages/

Meanwhile Mike Martin the local MP for Tunbridge Wells has been visiting the bottled water station at the Rugby Club along with the Secretary of State, she’s said she will ask Ofwat to assess whether SE Water have breached their licence. Which could lead to a fine or potentially having their licence removed.

This is a developing story so we shall add further updates in due course....