Hastings water supply latest: MP and prospective candidate put pressure on Southern Water

Currently an estimated 31,000 homes and businesses in St Leonards and Hastings are without a water supply due to a main’s burst in a difficult to to access section of woodland between Hastings and Sedlescombe.

There has been chaos today with traffic congestion and long queues as people have tried to pick up bottled water from Southern Water collection points.

Speaking today the MP said: “Southern Water teams have been working at the leak site throughout the night. I am waiting for an update following the ‘round of incident calls’.“I have spoken to Steve Barclay, Defra Secretary of State, who is joining me in putting pressure on Southern Water get water supply back as a matter of urgency and priority.“I have also contacted the CEO of Southern Water to urge him to resolve the issue as soon as possible - I reminded him that we have Jack in the Green this weekend, with thousands of visitors arriving.”

Helena Dollimore, in a letter to Southern Water, said: “The water outage is continuing to cause major disruption and chaos for residents across Hastings and St Leonards, with traffic girdlock, schools closing and and people’s livelihoods affected. Southern Water must do better and learn from the lessons of the Rye water crisis last year.”

She also urged Southern Water to set up more bottled water stations to ease the congestion and work with organisers of the Jack in the Green event this weekend to ensure that events can go ahead as planned.

Southern Water, in its latest statement, said: “Our teams are continuing to work around-the-clock to remove the broken pipe and replace it with a new length of pipework. This work will continue throughout the night.

“When this is completed, we will then recharge the network and restart our water supply works. However, this will take time and we expect disruption to continue into the weekend.

“If you are a vulnerable customer, or need access to water for medical reasons, and have not received a water delivery, please call 0330 303 0368.

We are very sorry for this disruption and will keep customers informed via our website and social media channels, as well as text messages and emails direct to impacted households.”

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