Homeowners left queuing for 3 hours as 30,000 properties without water following mains burst in East Sussex
Homeowners left queuing for 3 hours as 30,000 properties without water following mains burst in East Sussex
Getty/Southern Water
Homeowners in East Sussex have been forced to wait in a three-hour-long queue to collect water after a main pipe burst.
The disruption, which is affecting over 30,000 properties in St Leonards-on-Sea, was first reported on Thursday afternoon and is expected to continue into Sunday, according to Southern Water.
Locals have been stuck in gridlock traffic for hours in an attempt to get bottled water from stations.
One resident, Peter Haldana, 43, waited in a queue for three hours to collect 30 water bottles for The Highlands Inn Hotel & Bar, his workplace.
Locals have been stuck in gridlock traffic for hours in an attempt to get bottled water from stations
Southern Water
He told The Telegraph: “We had 10 rooms fully booked and we're expecting that nine will cancel. That's £100 a night.
“They are well within their rights to cancel. We don't have working toilets or showers.”
The burst pipe could be “drastic” for businesses, as it falls on the May Bank holiday weekend, one of the busiest periods of the year.
Councillor Daniel said he hopes Southern Water “acknowledge it in people’s water bills”, and called for the company to deliver water to the streets affected.
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“[The weekend is] always the busiest day for the hotels, pubs, the restaurants, this will have a huge impact on them.
“The impact on the town will be drastic, a lot of people will lose a lot of money,” he added.
He reported that one hotel in the region was resorting to using seawater to flush the toilets.
Southern Water first reported the issue with the pipe on Thursday afternoon, after which they began opening water stations on Sea Road in Hastings and next to an Asda in St Leonards.
The company also delivered water to 6,000 on its priority services register.
One resident, who is disabled, revealed to the Today programme that they were not on the priority list, despite receiving a letter confirming their addition last year.
The burst pipe has since been removed
Southern Water
Lesley Arshad said: “I rang the customer service representative and he said that I wasn't on the list and I said that I had received a letter from Southern Water to say that I was.
“He said ‘Oh it's probably because you live in a flat’ but he said I would get some water but not sure when I would get it.”
A spokesperson for the company said they had been in contact with Arshad and would be delivering water to her.
Southern Water said in an update on Saturday morning: “Our teams worked through the night to remove the broken pipe and replace it with a new length of pipework.
“We are making good progress on the repair.
“When the repair work 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 over the weekend.”