Services restored to most customers - Southern Water

Three bottled water stations were opened following the burst main outage on Thursday

Most of the thousands of homes and businesses affected by a loss of water supply in East Sussex have now been reconnected, Southern Water said.

However, "dozens" of properties in the Hastings and St-Leonards on-Sea area remain without water for a sixth day.

Southern Water said that by Tuesday evening, more than 30,000 customers were back on mains supply.

In its latest update, the utility company said: "The majority of residents and businesses are now back on mains supply and our focus is now on those customers whose services are still not fully restored."

An estimated 32,500 properties were left without water over the bank-holiday weekend after a mains pipe located in remote woodland burst on Thursday.

Southern Water said its focus was on those whose services were still not fully restored, and it was "continuing to support" them with tankers.

It said: "We’re also continuing to deliver water to our Priority Services customers in areas we know are still not back on mains supply.

"We expect to restore full services today."

As services to most customers was gradually being restored, the owner of one music venue in Hastings questioned whether the water firm was investing enough to solve the issues.

Paul Mandry, the owner of the music venue The Crypt, said he had been forced to close, and called on Southern Water to invest more into solving the problems.

“I don’t really think they care about the small businesses in Hastings and the affect the floods and now the burst water main is going to have on the town,” he told BBC Radio Sussex.

The burst mains pipe was located in remote woodland, Southern Water said

Southern Water has said customers may notice their water is “cloudy”.

“Samples have been collected from our water treatment works and customer properties as these are brought back into supply to confirm the water quality meets the regulatory standards,” a spokesman said.

"Peak demand is causing low pressure problems due to the geography of the area and we therefore expect customers to experience intermittent supplies as we build up reservoir levels and increase water pressure."

All affected schools reopened on Tuesday, East Sussex County Council said.

St Paul's Academy said pupils were allowed to wear non-uniform clothes as parents may not have been able to wash uniforms over the weekend.

'Doorstep deliveries'

Southern Water said it would "go beyond" its regulatory and statutory obligations in compensating businesses affected on a "goodwill basis" and explore "all options" for residents.

The company said it had distributed more than one million litres of bottled water to customers on its Priority Services Register.

It said it is now focused on those customers whose services are still not fully restored.

"We’re continuing to support these customers with tankers - putting water into the local network - running three bottled water stations, and carrying out doorstep deliveries for all customers in the impacted areas.

"These will be complete by 9pm."

The outage coincided with the annual Jack in the Green Festival in Hastings

The outage coincided with the annual Jack in the Green Festival in Hastings and the May Day Bike Run, both of which see thousands of visitors.

The events went ahead, but some revellers said they had been filling up buckets with seawater in order to flush toilets.

Keith Leech, chair of trustees for the Jack in the Green event, said: "On a Bank Holiday weekend, that's absolutely not what the town needs.”

Over the weekend, East Sussex councillor Godfrey Daniel said: "The impact on the town will be drastic, a lot of people will lose a lot of money.

"These businesses are struggling as it is with the cost-of-living crisis."

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