Cranbrook: Care home left without water amid supply problems

Simon Rowland, manager of Hartley House Care Home, said the water outage made things "incredibly tricky" to run things

A care home said it had no water for more than 24 hours amid ongoing supply issues in a part of Kent.

Simon Rowland, manager of Hartley House Care Home, said the situation made things "incredibly tricky" for its 52 residents and 15 staff.

South East Water said power outages from Storm Isha and temperature changes had led to no water or low pressure.

However, it said it had been delivering water to affected customers on its Priority Services Register.

South East Water incident manager Jim MacIntyre said Hartley House was among those on the list.

About 120 customers faced supply issues in the Cranbrook area on Wednesday, he added.

'Rationed'

Mr Rowland said the outage was reported to South East Water at about 11:00 GMT on Tuesday.

He said the lack of water affected normal activities such as cooking, laundry, flushing the toilet and making cups of tea.

"Suddenly all of these things are rationed," he said.

"The longer it goes on the more detrimental it is to the health and the care that we are providing here."

He said it was the third time in 12 months their water had shut off.

South East Water said it continued to deliver supplies to customers registered for priority services

At 15:15GMT, South East Water said all customers were back in supply.

Incident manager Steve Andrews confirmed boosters - needed to pump drinking water to affected customers on higher ground - were operating again.

Mr Andrews said: "Levels in our treated water storage tanks are low following power outages caused by Storm Isha and bursts caused by ground movement after the recent sharp changes in temperatures."

In a statement on its website, South East Water said: "We were well prepared ahead of Storm Isha's arrival, having learned from previous storms such as Franklin and Ciarán, and put measures in place to reduce the likelihood of our sites being affected by power cuts."

At 16:00 GMT, the care home confirmed supplies were starting to return.

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