Hastings water supply: MP and businesses demand compensation from Southern Water

The MP said her ‘heart sank’ when she found out about the major leak last Thursday (May 2), which was caused by a burst pipe.

Tens of thousands of homes were left without water as a result, with more than 30,000 customers finally regaining their supply by Tuesday (May 7).

Businesses are also expected to suffer losses of ‘hundreds of thousands, if not millions’ of pounds as a result of the incident.

Mrs Hart said: “When Southern Water contacted me last Thursday about a burst water mains affecting thousands of properties and businesses in Hastings, St Leonards and some of our surrounding villages last Thursday, my heart sank.

“I flagged the issue of compensation especially for businesses with Southern Water, which has confirmed that it will go beyond regulatory and statutory obligations in compensating businesses affected on a ‘goodwill basis’, once the water supply incident has been fully resolved.

“I impressed upon Southern Water the importance of finding and fixing the burst pipe, and restoring water before the weekend was out. Steve Barclay, the Environment Secretary, stepped in immediately to help and he and I led regular virtual meetings and telephone conversations with Southern Water, the NHS, East Sussex County Council, Hastings Borough Council and Sussex Resilience Forum to ensure that prompt action was taken by Southern Water to find and fix the leak, and that plans were in place to supply water to vulnerable people and establish water stations.

“It is important to note that water supply systems are critical infrastructure that directly impact public health, sanitation and daily life, and disruption in water supply due to a burst pipe has had serious consequences for our communities. Whilst Southern Water found the leak quickly, and strived to manage the burst pipe efficiently, it is clear that challenges relating to its infrastructure, resources and communication remain.

“I have a meeting with the CEO of Southern Water later this week to discuss a number of issues arising from the burst mains over the weekend, including questions regarding a planning application made by Southern Water and approved by Rother District Council in 2007 to replace a 12km section of ‘outworn’ raw water pipe from the Darwell Reservoir to Beauport Water Supply Works, whether this has been done and if not, why not. We also saw water outages for several days last year in Rye and surrounding villages, and I would like to hear from Southern Water what lessons they learnt from that, if any.”

John Bownas, manager of Love Hastings, said the incident ‘couldn’t have come at a worse time’.

He said: “Although the Old Town retained its water supply due to being on a different main system the businesses there will still have felt the impact due to so many visitors not being able to stay in town for the weekend following the cancellation of hotel and B&B bookings.

“Overall the losses across the town must add up to the high hundreds of thousands, if not into millions.

“Everyone who was impacted deserves compensation, and businesses are now waiting for Southern Water to reveal the package of measures they have promised, and which the company says will go beyond the statutory minimum. This is crucial, because the law makes little distinction between a home and a business in cases such as this, meaning that a café or bar that has lost thousands in profits might only receive £100 or so.

“What became very apparent is that we need a better understanding of the town's plumbing system, and we need emergency plans that can be set in motion should this ever happen again. And given that we now know our main supply runs through a pipe that was condemned as being at the end of its life almost 20 years ago it seems it is only a matter of time before the taps once more go dry.

“But none of us want that - we don't want to see businesses closed on any day of the year, let alone May Day bank holiday weekend. We don't want to see hotel owners having to fill buckets of seawater just so the toilets can flush.

“Pressure has to be put on Southern Water to do the work they got planning permission for, and I'd suggest they go a step further, and when laying a new pipe they use the opportunity to put in a secondary line in parallel so that should any fault develop along that 12km stretch there is a backup that can be used.”

As regards the 2007 application, a Southern Water spokesperson said: “We will be investigating this as part of a full review of the incident in the coming days and weeks. But our priority is to ensure all customers return to supply.”

The spokesperson added: “Once we are confident that all our customers have their water supply restored and stable, we will explore compensation options. We have already committed to going beyond our regulatory and statutory obligations in compensating the businesses affected, on a goodwill basis.”