Water supply issues affect more than 4,000 homes

About 4,500 homes in Kent have been experiencing water supply issues.

South East Water apologised and said the disruption affecting several villages around Maidstone was caused by an electrical fault at a treatment works.

Earlier, incident manager Matthew Dean said: "We have resolved this issue and are refilling the pipes slowly and carefully. We expect supplies to return later today."

By Sunday evening, about 800 customers in the Linton area, near Maidstone, were still experiencing low pressure or no water, the company said.

In the Bidborough area of Tunbridge Wells, about 320 properties had been experiencing water supply issues since Wednesday, with residents seeing intermittent supplies and low pressure.

Dean said supplies were expected to return to normal on Monday morning.

On Sunday evening, some properties were still experiencing intermittent supplies, the company said.

It said there were low water levels in the drinking water storage tank that supplied the area and a tanker was being used to inject water directly into the network to support supplies while the tank replenished.

A walk-in bottled water collection point was available at Bidborough Village Hall, Bidborough Ride, Bidborough, TN3 0XD.

The latest disruption comes after 30,000 people in Sussex and Kent were affected by water problems earlier this week.

Water regulator Ofwat is launching an investigation over repeated water supply failures in the two counties.

Bottled water stations would remain open until 22:00 GMT on Sunday, South East Water said. In addition to the water station in Bidborough, they were at:

• Mote Park Leisure Centre, Mote Park, Maidstone, ME15 7RN
• Headcorn Aerodrome, Shenley Rd, Ashford TN27 9HX
• Harrietsham Village Hall, Church Road, Harrietsham, Maidstone ME17 1AP, which is a walk-in collection point

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