Southern Water has confirmed that around 10,000 homes in Hastings and St-Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex are still without water or have limited supply after a pipe burst last Thursday. Despite more than 20,000 properties now having their supply restored, the company anticipates full service will be resumed to those currently affected later on Monday. A number of internal areas of Hastings, including Belmont, Forest Way and Newgate South, and local communities such as St. Helen’s, west of Fairlight and an area north of Hollington, including The Ridge and Queensway, are still struggling without water. Tankers are distributing water in some areas to support the residential water demands.
Several major events were planned for the area over the weekend, including the Jack in the Green Festival and the May Day Bike Run. Both proceeded despite the water shortage, with locals pictured collecting sea water to flush their toilets. Some businesses had been experiencing a tough time prior to the outage, prompting concern that the bank holiday weekend water crisis will worsen their financial difficulties. The county councillor for East Sussex, Godfrey Daniel, warned “these businesses are struggling as it is with the cost of living crisis.”
There were some areas of Hastings and St Leonards that did not experience an interruption to water service, and four water stations were established across the municipality to serve those without access to water. Southern Water apologised for the issue and will allow the water stations to operate until 21:00 BST on Monday, May 3rd.
Dan Peacock, owner of the Hastings Court Care home, says their staff have been working hard to minimise disruptions to the 79 residents. The company added: “We are very sorry for the disruption this outage has caused, particularly over the bank holiday weekend, and we are committed to helping customers who are still without water.
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