Huge disruption as burst pipe leads to torrent from bridge
Families were forced to traipse down to a nearby YMCA centre to shower and pubs chucked away roast dinners as water shortages hit homes after a huge leak.
Part of the A229 Loose Road in Maidstone was shut for several days after a burst water main under the viaduct sent torrents of water cascading down the 200-year-old bridge on Saturday evening.
Hundreds of South East Water customers in Loose, Coxheath, Headcorn and Ulcombe areas were left without water or had low pressure to their homes until supplies were restored on Tuesday evening.
It is one of the latest incidents facing the company after Sheppey was cut off for three days and villagers in Challock and Molash near Ashford lost supplies for more than a week during some of the hottest temperatures on record.
The Walnut Tree pub in Loose Road started experiencing issues at about 8pm on Saturday then on Sunday morning had no water at all.
Landlady Eloise Jeffery said: “We had to close all food services on Sunday due to no water.
“All the food we ordered in for our usual Sunday roast just went to waste and we had to throw it away.
“We also had to cancel our table bookings for the day. We had minimal staff in and the toilet facilities couldn’t be used.
“Not only that, people didn’t want to come to the pub because people didn’t want to go out as they couldn’t wash.
“I’m a small business owner taking over this pub four months before Covid hit and we made it through that.
“Then we get hit by the cost of living crisis and now on top of that we have this water issue on one of our busiest days.”
Resident and dad-of-three Richard Stocks, an infrastructure engineer, described how being left without water meant he had to pay to take the children for a shower at the nearby YMCA centre.
He said: “We couldn’t flush the toilet. We have two toilets in the house and one has a built-in cistern and we told them to only use that one but everyone ends up queuing or they forget to do certain things.
“They’re kids; they shouldn’t have to think about it. They should just be able to go so it’s been hard, very hard.
“I paid to go to the YMCA so the kids could have showers because they’re out playing and mucking around, stinking and being kids so I had to pay for the privilege to use water.
“I’m frustrated and I think they’re just putting a plaster over it the entire time and there’s no compensation – just bottles of water.
“They don’t know how many people are in our house but they only let my missus have two crates with six bottles in each so we only had 24 litres.
“I know the average person only needs to drink two litres a day but you don’t account for things like the toilet or washing up.
“You still have to eat so what do you do? Buy more takeaways because you can’t do the washing up? Well that costs more money and they’re not going to reimburse that.
“They have to take responsibility because it’s happened quite a few times.
“The millions they earn in profits, sometimes it feels like they are just putting duct tape over things just to keep the costs down and I think it’s just failing a bit too much.”
Surveyor and fellow Loose resident Gareth Howgate said the issue was not one to panic about.
He said: “I’m not upset about it, it is what it is. There was a burst water main, it’s what you expect.
“They have bottled water around at the school [New Line Learning Academy] which is only a two minute walk from us so we haven’t been without it. I can still have my cup of tea so there’s no real issue.
“These things happen and it is an ongoing issue but I don’t want to get upset about it.
“The only thing is you don’t get many updates about it from South East Water, no emails or whatever but that’s the most upsetting thing, the lack of communication.”
Some homes in Coxheath remained without water into Tuesday after the majority of customers were reconnected on Monday, South East Water said.
Bottle stations opened at the leisure centre in Maidstone and New Line Learning Academy on Boughton Lane and Coxheath village hall.
Kent County Council closed the road on top of the viaduct from Sunday to inspect potential structural damage. It was due to reopen today (Thursday).