Water misery around Bayleys Hill in Kent after power outage

Households in parts of Kent are experiencing water supply issues after a power cut hit a water processing facility.

South East Water confirmed earlier that water could not be pumped to 96 properties in and around Bayleys Hill due to an electricity outage.

Steve Benton, the water company’s incident manager, says the outage has “impacted our boosters that push water around our network in this area”.

“We have an incident team in place, which is working as safely and quickly as possible to return water to all customers in the area,” he said.

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

Local resident Sam Anderson says her plans to celebrate with a “house full” have 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.

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

Ms Flasck says a bottled water station has been reopened at Pelham Place Car Park, on Carlisle Parade, as a “precautionary measure”.

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.