When SW 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 told SW that this could not have happened at a worse time, just before the May bank holiday with Jack in the Green events over the weekend and the procession on Monday which attracts thousands of visitors - as well as around 20,000 motorbikes who traditionally come down to Hastings and St Leonards on May Day. It is not just about the extra visitors and impact on local residents, which is bad enough, but that this weekend should have provided our tourism and hospitality businesses especially, a much-needed revenue boost following a particularly challenging and long winter and spring. I flagged the issue of compensation especially for businesses with SW, 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 SW 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 SW, the NHS, East Sussex County Council, Hastings BC and Sussex Resilience Forum to ensure that prompt action was taken by SW to find and fix the leak, and that plans were in place to supply water to vulnerable people and establish water stations. SW needed to take action and take advantage of offers of help from the UK Government and Sussex Resilience Forum to prevent widespread disruption.
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. Water supply and infrastructure management are operational matters for SW which should have contingency plans in place. Whilst SW 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, as can be seen in the 2,500 homes still without water during most of today, and the incident of another small burst in the Fairlight area as a result of restoring supply.
I have a meeting with the CEO of SW 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 12 km 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 SW what lessons they learnt from that, if any. I believe that better planning, investment into our local water infrastructure and working together with other agencies is essential to improve emergency preparedness. Best of all, of course, would be to see much needed investment going into our local infrastructure so that we do not have to suffer ongoing problems with water supply in the future.