Water restored for 1,800 properties after burst main

Almost 1,800 properties across Surrey, East Sussex and Kent have had their water supplies restored after being hit by problems due to a burst main.

South East Water (SEW) said Colemans Hatch and Hartfield in East Sussex began having issues on Saturday morning. Firs Close in Aylesford, Kent, had issues from Saturday night and Camberley, Surrey, had issues from Sunday morning.

There were up to 1,600 properties impacted in Aylesford, 115 in Coleman's Hatch and 59 in Camberley, SEW said.

By 16:00 BST on Sunday, supplies had returned for all affected customers, the water company said.

In East Sussex, the issue began at about 08:00 on Saturday morning. The burst was repaired shortly before 21:30 the same day.

But by 06:50 on Sunday morning, the company reported the issue had returned.

"Over the course of the weekend, we repaired a complex burst main on our network," a SEW spokesperson said.

"After returning the water to our network overnight, our water main has burst again."

Shortly before 17:00 on Sunday, SEW said that the repair to the water main had been completed and customers should had seen their taps flowing as normal.

In Aylesford, issues began at about 18:00 on Saturday night. Shortly before 14:00 the following day, the company said that the "incredibly complex" repair had been completed and it was slowly returning water to the pipework.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, all properties lost supply again until midday due to a complication, which was resolved for all but four properties by 14:00, SEW added.

Residents in Camberley began facing supply issues at about 07:00 on Sunday morning and were told shortly after 16:20 that the burst main had been repaired, and that they should have seen their taps flowing as normal.

David Hinton, chief executive of SEW, admitted to MPs earlier in April that it "failed" customers as about 24,000 properties in Kent and Sussex lost water or had low pressure in November in December, just weeks before up to 30,000 were hit with more issues.

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