Power outage causing water interruption repaired

A power cut that interrupted water supplies to nearly 100 properties in Kent has been repaired, a water company has said.

Households in and around Bayleys Hill, Sevenoaks, were affected as the electricity outage hit a processing facility that meant water could not to pumped to the properties.

At 16:25 GMT on Friday a South East Water spokesperson said: "We are pleased to report the repair is now complete and we are slowly returning the water to the pipework.

"This has to be done in a controlled way to prevent any further issues".

They said it had to be done in a "controlled way" to prevent any further issues.

"Hopefully it will not be too much longer until your supplies are fully restored, thank you for your patience and understanding," they added.

Speaking to the BBC on how the incident has impacted her Christmas, Sam Anderson said her plans to celebrate with a "house full" had been scuppered.

"I'd laid the table already, and it was going to be a really, big celebration for Boxing Day, but we've had to cancel all of that," said the mother-of-two.

Steve Benton, the water company's incident manager, told the BBC the outage had "impacted our boosters that push water around our network in this area".

Customers can pick up bottled water from a water station at Solefields car park, on Solefields Road in Sevenoaks.

Meanwhile, the majority of those affected by water disruption around Hastings have had supplies restored, Southern Water said.

A company spokesperson said some customers may still experience "a slight change in odour and discolouration" with their tap water.

They add this is normal after intermittent loss of water or low pressure in the network.

"Reservoir levels are slowly improving and we have decided to close our bottled water station at Pelham Place Car Park, Carlisle Parade, Hastings, TN34 3AD," they said.

Supply issues were caused by a burst pipe which was discovered in woodland near the East Sussex town on Tuesday.

Tania Flasck, director of water operations, told BBC Radio Sussex: "Overnight, we've been able to stock up the reservoir levels so most people if not everyone should be back into supply now."

Explaining that the water company received "less than 45 calls" about this issue on Christmas Day, Ms Flasck estimated that "a few hundreds properties" were affected by the issue.

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