Kent’s water crisis isn’t over yet
The taps are running again, but the arguments, investigations and political rows are only just getting started
Good afternoon, and welcome back to your Monday briefing.
If the past few weeks have felt unusually chaotic for a supposedly well-connected, well-served county, you’re not imagining it. Between water outages, storm damage, hospital pressures and a steady stream of local rows and emergencies, Kent has had a rough start to the year.
Across the county, it’s been one of those weeks where everything seems to pile in at once. A High Court ruling has cleared the way for part of Chatham Docks to be redeveloped. A Canterbury pensioner is threatening to chain himself to a historic lamppost. Folkestone’s swimming pool could be in line for a £6m upgrade. A hydrogen plant is being planned for Manston. Kent has even managed to find itself Newsthump’d.
But the story that keeps cutting through it all is water.
Most homes now have supply back, but after weeks of rolling outages, emergency tankers and bottled water queues, the system behind Kent’s taps is still being held together with temporary fixes. Regulators are circling, MPs are demanding resignations, and serious questions are being asked about how close the county came to a much bigger failure.
Right. Let’s get into it.
Kent’s water is back for most residents, but the system behind it is still broken
For most households across Kent, the taps are running again today. But after weeks of rolling outages, bottled water queues and emergency tankers, the county’s water network is still being propped up with temporary fixes. South East Water is now facing regulator action, licence risk and open revolt from MPs.
30,000 homes across Kent and Sussex were without water or with dangerously low pressure earlier this month after Storm Goretti triggered burst mains, power failures and treatment works breakdowns. Since then, fresh faults have continued to spread across the county.
Over the weekend alone:
- 4,500 homes around Maidstone lost supply after a treatment works failure
- 800 homes in Linton were hit by a burst main
- 320 homes in Bidborough went days without reliable water
- Another burst main between Maidstone and Ashford hit a further 500 homes
South East Water says most supplies are now restored. But it also admits the network is still being stabilised using tankers, emergency pumping and controlled refilling of pipes to prevent further failures.
What happened
This is the third major collapse in two months.
Before Christmas, 24,000 homes in Tunbridge Wells were left without drinking water for two weeks. In November, a treatment works failure that regulators now say was foreseeable for weeks knocked out supplies again.
Storm Goretti then triggered a new wave of failures, leaving 30,000 homes across Kent and Sussex without water or low pressure and forcing the declaration of a major incident.
Since then, the network has lurched from fault to fault.
Why Kent keeps ending up here
Treatment works have failed. Storage levels have run too low. Burst mains and power outages have cascaded across the network. When one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong.
Regulators have now told MPs that at least one major failure was predictable and could have been prevented.
Instead, Kent keeps finding out its water has failed when the taps run dry.
Who is now under pressure
The pressure is now squarely on South East Water’s leadership.
MPs from across the county, including Helen Grant, Helen Whately, and Rosie Duffield, have demanded the resignation of chief executive David Hinton, accusing the company of an inadequate emergency response and misleading communication.
Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin has gone further, writing directly to the company’s shareholders and owners and urging them to sack the board and bring in a turnaround team.
He has warned that the government has begun reviewing South East Water’s licence, and that owners risk losing their entire investment if the company is placed into special administration.
Martin has also raised serious questions about the company’s finances, revealing that shareholder loans have ballooned from £90m to £276m in just two years, while owners charge close to 10% interest, even as infrastructure across Kent continues to fail.
The argument from MPs is simple. Kent residents are paying the price for years of underinvestment while shareholders continue to extract value from the company.
Martin vs Kemkaran
The crisis has also exposed a growing political row over who is actually in charge of Kent’s emergency response.
Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran has launched a public attack on Mike Martin over his handling of a visit by the Defra Secretary of State to Tunbridge Wells last week.
Kemkaran says KCC, which is the county’s adult social care authority, education authority and the lead agency for Kent’s major incident response, was deliberately excluded from a closed meeting with the minister.
She says Martin physically prevented council officers, including the county’s director of public health, from entering the room.
Mr Martin is MP for a relatively small part of Kent, she said. KCC is responsible for 1.6 million residents and leads the Strategic Coordinating Group for major incidents.
“Mr Martin is MP for a relatively tiny part of Kent,” she said. “At KCC, we are responsible for 1.6 million residents. We are the lead agency for managing incidents and emergencies.”
Kemkaran has accused South East Water of “abysmal” communication and “terrible service”, and says residents are being left without warning of outages, without timetables for restoration and without basic information about when water will return.
She has also accused Martin of turning the ministerial visit into a personal publicity exercise while the wider county remained in crisis.
Martin, meanwhile, has positioned himself as the most aggressive critic of South East Water’s leadership, accusing the company of disgraceful conduct, demanding its contractors be sacked and calling on shareholders to remove its board.
What happens next
Regulator Ofwat has launched an investigation into whether South East Water has breached its licence by failing to meet customer service standards during repeated outages.
If it is found in breach, penalties could include heavy fines. In extremis, the company could lose its licence and be placed into special administration.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate has already told MPs that at least one major failure was predictable and preventable.
South East Water says engineers are working around the clock to repair leaks, reroute water and stabilise reservoirs.
But for many residents, the question is no longer when the water comes back, it is whether they can trust it to stay on.
Three big reads
1️⃣ Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kent's water issues have dominated national newspapers in recent days. Harry Cockburn in the Independent asked how Britain can solve the crisis, calling the situation here a 'national disgrace.'
2️⃣ Meanwhile, the ever restrained Daily Mail offered that 'the misery of Tunbridge Wells sums up Britain today.'
3️⃣ Over at the Telegraph, they took a different approach, talking to businesses and individuals impacted by the issues, who are, shockingly, not impressed by the situation.
Council matters
Meetings this week:
- Canterbury: Cabinet meets tonight (Monday) to discuss governance arrangements for Canterbury, Whitstable, and Herne Bay, alongside a draft housing strategy, property disposals, and more.
- Folkestone & Hythe: Cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss new policies and strategies for just about everything, from events to customer access to ICT to hate crimes.
- Kent: Scutiny Committee on Thursday will see councillors discuss SEND, water supply issues, and the upcoming budget.
- Medway: Full Council meets on Thursday to discuss the constitution, disposal of Gillingham Business Park and the former Strood Civic Centre site, as well as debate motions on political intimidation, school streets, and shrinking democracy.
- Dartford: Cabinet gets together on Thursday to discuss replacing a town centre footbridge and the latest on the Orchard Theatre.
- Dover: Planning Committee will decide on Thursday whether to grant permission to two new housing developments, including a 30 home site in Walmer and 11 homes in Great Mongeham.
- Thanet: Cabinet meets on Thursday to discuss the draft budget for the coming year.
New planning applications:
- Kent: Dover Grammar School for Girls is seeking permission to demolish two mobile classrooms to replace them with a new permanent block.
- Folkestone & Hythe: Lidl have applied to build a new store on brownfield land off Southern Way.
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In brief
👊 Kent County Council Cabinet member Peter Osborne will face no further action after threatening to punch a colleague in the jaw.
📄 Two Labour councillors in Medway have publicly claimed that their administration's Local Plan isn't legally compliant, in response to a government consultation on it.
💡 A Canterbury pensioner is threatening to chain himself to a historic lamppost if Kent County Council tries to remove it.
🏠 Residents in Folkestone are very upset about housing being provided to homeless people.
🚁 Two search and rescue helicopters previously based at Lydd have been relocated to Hampshire following a row over airport fees.
🏥 East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust declared a critical incident last week following a surge in admissions.
🏥 On the other hand, the stroke unit at Kent & Canterbury Hospital has been named the best in the country.
🏫 Maidstone will have a shortfall of 1,765 secondary school places by 2033, which seems quite bad.
🏢 The leaseholder of Arlington House in Margate is being called before Thanet District Council over safety concerns and eviction notices.
🏊 Folkestone & Hythe District Council is considering a £6m upgrade of Folkestone's swimming pool.
🏗️ The redevelopment of part of Chatham Docks can proceed following a High Court ruling that dismissed a judicial review.
🏭 Plans have been revealed for a £120m hydrogen plant in Manston.
🚑 A man has been seriously injured after 'falling from height' at Rochester Castle.
🗣️ Three Citizens Advice organisations in Kent have merged to form a new North East Kent branch.
🍲 The Telegraph has reviewed Pomus in Folkestone.
📢 Kent has been Newsthump'd.
Events this week
🏎️ Mon 19 Jan - An Evening with Damon Hill // Formula 1 champion talks about his career and the current state of the sport. Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells. Tickets from £39.25.
Footnotes
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