Tunbridge Wells MP calls for Covid-style water recovery package

“Covid-style” compensation should be made available for businesses affected by water supply issues which led to taps running dry for 24,000 properties, an MP has said.

Water had been restored to almost all the households across Kent and East Sussex by Thursday evening – six days after supply issues began due to a problem at a water treatment works.

A health alert issued by South East Water (SEW) for families to boil water remains in place, while businesses were counting the cost from a loss in trade and an increase in costs.

Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin called for an £18.5m recovery package, and said he was told of hotels losing £30,000, and a cafe chain losing up to £50,000.

“This period before Christmas is vital for retail and hospitality,” he added.

“The money they make now ensures they can survive in January and February.”

He proposed every business should receive £25,000 if they had been unable to open due to the water crisis.

Businesses have previously told the BBC how the situation had severely impacted them financially.

Mr Martin also reiterated his demand for the resignation of SEW boss David Hinton.

“I won’t be resting until there’s a resignation at the top,” he said.

“You need people to lead and calm people down during a crisis. The people of Tunbridge Wells won’t forget that.”

A woman who runs a plumbing and heating businesses in High Brooms told the BBC how trade had been affected.

Kate Bickmore said she had to “cancel a lot of jobs” during one of the busiest weeks of the year.

She said: “It’s hit me financially. Hopefully work will pick up again, but I won’t recover the money which I lost this week.”

Despite the difficulties, Ms Bickmore said the community spirit has been “amazing”.

She said people have been looking after the elderly and vulnerable people, and she has been helping to deliver water.

“South East Water need to do better,” she added.

“We shouldn’t be without water for a week in this day and age.”

Other residents have been telling the BBC about water returning to their households.

“There’s now disgusting brown substance coming out of the taps,” said Phil Cramp, from High Brooms

He added his three children lived with his parents in Tonbridge during the water crisis.

He said: “We’ve been buying water and the price has certainly gone up in a lot of shops locally.”

Anita Jarrett, who lives in Sherwood, said her closest water station was in Knights Way – more than one mile from her home.

“I don’t drive, so I’ve been relying on lifts from friends and family,” she said.

“My water is OK now. When the water cut out on Saturday I had hair dye on and couldn’t wash it off!”

Mr Martin has also urged residents to “stop abusing SEW technical staff on the streets repairing burst mains or airlocks in the system”.

He has also warned residents to be cautious of “disinformation” on social media.

SEW’s water supply director Douglas Whitfield told the BBC in an exclusive interview that “there has been no indication of contamination in the water”.

When asked what went wrong at the Pembury Treatment Works, Mr Whitfield explained: “We haven’t been able to remove the cloudiness of the water to the standard.

“Cloudiness are natural particles in water. We do see seasonal trends in the water quality that comes through the Pembury Treatment Works.

“These trends are outside of what we would normally expect, which caused challenges to the treatment process.”

When asked if the company could guarantee the boiled water notice would be lifted according to their planned timeline, Mr Whitfield said they had “every intention of removing the 10-day boiled water notice”.

Mr Whitfield said the priority was to “resolve the issue” before confirming what had caused all the problems in the first place.

He added the treatment works were “performing much better” over the last 24 hours, and the boiled water notice was implemented as a “precautionary step” while disinfection of water takes place.

“Public health is our priority,” he added. “The changes we’ve made have resolved the issues we were seeing that led to interruptions.”

Addressing the earlier confusion over some areas of Tonbridge that had been included in the boiled water notice, he said: “Customers can go to our website and enter their full postcode, that should tell them whether they are included or not.

“Communication in any event is always a challenge, we certainly accept that there are some things we could learn from, particularly in first 48 hours when we aren’t sure what happened ourselves.”

He said the current problem was not caused by infrastructure at Pembury Treatment Works, but believed it was an issue with raw water.

When asked why Mr Hinton has not responded to numerous interview requests, Mr Whitfield said the CEO had been “working with MPs, stakeholders, ministers and Defra” to ensure the company had all the resources it needed to manage the crisis.

“We put forward the most appropriate people to deal with media requests,” he added.

He said Mr Hinton “absolutely understands” the level of anger from customers.

SEW’s latest statement, published just after 08:30 GMT, said customers who live on the highest ground in Tunbridge Wells “may still be experiencing low pressures or intermittent supply while they remove the final airlocks from the network”.

A spokesperson said while they “understood the frustration”, they urged customers to “respect staff out in the field and at bottled water stations”

“They are working hard to do all they can to restore supplies and provide customers with water during this time,” they added.

Bottled water stations will open again at 09:00 GMT at the following locations:

• Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, St John’s Rd, Royal Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9TX

• Odeon car park, Knights Way, TN2 3UW

• B&M Store with Garden Centre, Linden Park Road, Kent TN2 5QL