Latest news with #DouglasWhitfield
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
South East Water says supply issue improving but not yet fixed
An ongoing water supply issue in Kent is improving but has not been "completely fixed" yet, with about 500 properties remaining affected for a sixth day, South East Water has Wednesday, it said up to 3,000 customers in Whitstable, Seasalter and surrounding areas had no water or low pressure due to the recent the number of affected homes has reduced, the company's water supply director, Douglas Whitfield, could not promise a total resolution by told BBC Radio Kent: "That's certainly what we're hoping [but] I wouldn't like to 100% commit to that because if I do then something else could happen which means that's not the case." Mr Whitfield said the Seasalter area had seen a "good return to supply" and "all those customers should have their normal mains supply back on now", but there were "intermittent" issues around the Wraik Hill and Yorkletts areas."The last area we need to get on is the Wraik Hill area which has benefitted from some boosters which suck water from one of our storage tanks, and they're still currently airlocked," he boosters ran for a period on Sunday night, but "tripped off" on Monday morning, he said."Water will be injected from a tanker into the area," he said, adding that supply should be returned later on Monday. Meanwhile, he said a fault on one of the apparatus on the network needed to be repaired and replaced, but it was a complicated process."It's a very deep main, encased in concrete, and will require us to isolate that main to do the repair. Obviously we can't do that until supplies are back in," he bottled water stations at Sainsbury's on Reeves Way in Chestfield, and at 129C Faversham Road, Seasalter, in Whitstable, remain open on Whitfield also promised customers would be compensated in due for the outage, he said: "This is not the service we want to give to customers... it's been a very challenging week."
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
'Get it fixed' - anger as water outages continue
Homes and schools in the Tonbridge area remain without water as outages in west Kent continue. A power cut on Saturday shut down a water treatment works that supplies 5,000 properties in Sevenoaks, Hildenborough, Bidborough and Tonbridge. South East Water's operations director Douglas Whitfield told BBC Radio Kent it hoped to get the system "back to life" on Wednesday. However, at 20:30 GMT some customers were still without water. The company said drinking water storage tanks in the area were showing "positive signs of recovery", which meant supplies should return to many customers in the evening. "We're still working hard to clear remaining air locks impacting other parts of Tonbridge and this will continue overnight to restore supplies as quickly as possible", the spokesperson added. Residents have expressed their frustration and anger and called on the supplier to sort the problems urgently. Mr Whitfield said power had been returned to the works on Monday and engineers were working on recharging and handling pockets of air in the system to restore water. He said: "Presuming nothing else fails and we get no more bursts, that system should come back to life as we go through the day [on Wednesday]." South East Water's incident support manager Michael Pickard said he hoped to see another 1,000 properties get their water supply back on Wednesday afternoon but could not be certainty when. He said: "We have had some issues with water locks. We can only restore those in a slow and steady process, we do not want to further disturb the network or create any bursts and outages that will further impede our ability to supply our network." But for some, it's too little too late. Imtiaz Mohammad and Sushant Bali live in Tonbridge had to borrow a trolley from a nearby supermarket to take home bottles from the water station on Morley Road. Mr Bali said: "It's quite inconvenient, especially when you have a family of kids at home and you're not sure if the water quality coming from the taps is drinkable or not." Sonia and Stephen Cook live next to Bloodshots Reservoir and have been without water. Mr Cook told South East Water to "get it fixed". He said: "Toilet flushing is done with rainwater at the moment. The water butt is about half empty now." Tonbridge resident Brian Blanchard is without water and said he was disgusted with South East Water and local MPs. Mr Blanchard is in the middle of getting a new bathroom and said he had to stand builders down. His partner Louise Makepeace said: "South East Water should fix the problem now. "Life without water is a massive inconvenience and it makes you feel unclean." Louise Taylor has been collecting rainwater to use in her home in Tonbridge. "Fortunately we have water butts in our front and back gardens which we are getting water from to flush toilets," she said. "You realise how much water you use each day when you have to fill buckets and get bottles to drink." On Tuesday the MP for Tonbridge Tom Tugendhat called the outage "unacceptable". He told BBC South East he intended to "keep the pressure on" water companies. A number of schools in Tonbridge have made the decision to close on Wednesday. The Judd School in south Tonbridge closed on Wednesday due to "continuing unresolved" water supply issues. Somerhill School said it was shutting for the day as it was without toilet and kitchen facilities. Tonbridge Grammar School, Weald of Kent Grammar School and Leigh Academy have also shut for the day. South East Water set up two water stations in Speldhurst and Tonbridge on Wednesday and is delivering to vulnerable customers on the Priority Services Register (PRS). The supplier has also said it is looking into how compensation for affected customers will work. Follow BBC Kent on Facebook on X and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ Water outage disruption 'unacceptable', says MP Water firm publishes plan for next half century South East Water
BBC News
29-01-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Tonbridge: Properties still without water as outages continue
Homes and schools in the Tonbridge area remain without water on Wednesday as outages in west Kent continue. A power cut on Saturday shut down a water treatment works that supplies 5,000 properties in Sevenoaks, Hildenborough, Bidborough and East Water's operations director Douglas Whitfield told BBC Radio Kent said it hoped to get the system "back to life" today. He said power had been returned to the works on Monday and engineers were working on recharging and handling pockets of air in the system to restore water. He said: "It has been a really slow recharge. I totally understand the frustration of the customers and say I'm really sorry for that."We've been doing all we can and the system should be getting back to normal and we should see that continue today."Presuming nothing else fails and we get no more bursts, that system should come back to life as we go through the day today." But for some, it's too little too late. Tonbridge resident Brian Blanchard is without water and said he was disgusted with South East Water and local MPs. Mr Blanchard is in the middle of getting a new bathroom and said he had to stand builders partner Louise Makepeace said: "South East Water should fix the problem now. "Life without water is a massive inconvenience and it makes you feel unclean." On Tuesday the MP for Tonbridge Tom Tugendhat called the outage "unacceptable".He told BBC South East he intended to "keep the pressure on" water companies. A number of schools in Tonbridge have made the decision to close on Judd School in south Tonbridge closed on Wednesday due to "continuing unresolved" water supply School said it was shutting for the day as it was without toilet and kitchen facilities. Tonbridge Grammar School, Weald of Kent Grammar School and Leigh Academy have also shut for the day. South East Water set up two water stations in Speldhurst and Tonbridge on Wednesday and is delivering to vulnerable customers on the Priority Services Register (PRS). The supplier has also said it is looking into how compensation for affected customers will work. Mr Whitfield told BBC South East on Tuesday that storms over the weekend had caused a mechanical fault that meant the treatment works' backup generator failed.
