Tunbridge Wells Water Crisis: 24,000 Residents Face Fourth Day of Dry Taps as MP Demands South East Water Boss Resign

Residents of Tunbridge Wells and surrounding villages are enduring a fourth day of severe water disruption after a “bad chemical batch” forced the shutdown of a key treatment works, leaving tens of thousands of homes and businesses without a reliable supply. ^[1]

South East Water is under intense political and public pressure, with local MP Mike Martin calling for chief executive David Hinton to resign over what he describes as a “total failure of leadership”. ^[2]

As of Tuesday 2 December 2025, the company says supplies are gradually returning, but thousands of properties across Kent and parts of East Sussex are still experiencing no water or very low pressure, and frustration in the community is boiling over. ^[3]

What caused the Tunbridge Wells water outage?

The crisis began on Saturday night when Pembury Water Treatment Works, which plays a crucial role in supplying Royal Tunbridge Wells, had to be taken offline.

South East Water has said the works stopped operating because of a faulty batch of coagulant chemicals used in the treatment process – a “bad chemical batch” that meant production had to be halted as a safety precaution. ^[4]

Coagulant chemicals are routinely used to bind tiny particles together so they can be removed from drinking water. If a batch does not behave correctly, companies must stop treatment to avoid sending inadequately treated water into the network. TS2 Tech

Once Pembury was shut down, local storage reservoirs began to run low. As demand continued over the weekend, pressure dropped sharply across the system and properties on higher ground lost supply altogether. TS2 Tech+1

South East Water has since sourced a replacement batch of chemicals and restarted the treatment works, but says it must refill storage tanks slowly and carefully to avoid further disruption and airlocks in the pipes. ^[5]

How many people are affected?

What started as an issue affecting a few thousand customers has escalated into a major regional outage:

Early estimates suggested about 6,000 properties had lost supply. TS2 Tech
Further checks revealed the true figure was closer to 23,000–24,000 homes and businesses facing either no water or very low pressure across large parts of the TN1–TN4 postcodes and some nearby villages. TS2 Tech+1
South East Water and local media report that, by Monday evening, around 5,000 properties had been reconnected, but roughly 18,000 remained without a normal supply. ^[6]
On Tuesday morning, national news agencies were still describing thousands of households in Kent and East Sussex without water for a fourth day. ^[7]

The affected area includes much of Tunbridge Wells itself and surrounding communities such as Frant and Eridge, with some villages also dealing with separate burst mains or pumping faults on top of the main incident. TS2 Tech+1

Timeline: from “bad batch” to fourth day without water

Saturday 29 November – Treatment works shut down

Pembury Water Treatment Works is taken out of service on Saturday night after staff identify a problem with a batch of treatment chemicals. ^[8]
South East Water warns customers in Tunbridge Wells and nearby areas that they may experience low pressure or a complete loss of water as storage tanks run low. ^[9]

Sunday 30 November – Taps run dry for tens of thousands

Local radio reports that around 24,000 people could be affected, as taps run dry across most of Tunbridge Wells. ^[10]
Emergency bottled water stations are opened at Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, the RCP car park and the Odeon cinema car park to cope with long queues of residents. ^[11]
South East Water initially tells customers it expects supplies to be restored by early Monday morning. ^[12]

Monday 1 December – Third day, missed deadlines and growing anger

As the new working week begins, thousands still have no running water. Sky News reports at least 23,000 customers affected, with multiple schools closed and community facilities shut. ^[13]
Kent County Council lists more than 10 primary and secondary schools unable to open due to having no water on site. ^[14]
ITV News Meridian reports disabled residents and businesses losing thousands of pounds in revenue, including a hotel owner estimating £6,000 in lost takings in a single day. ^[15]
South East Water updates its guidance: instead of Monday morning, it now expects “the majority” of customers to have water back by 8am Tuesday 2 December, acknowledging that previous estimates were too optimistic. ^[16]
Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin accuses the company of “false and misleading” communication and a “total shambles” in how the crisis has been handled. ^[17]

Tuesday 2 December – Fourth day of disruption

Overnight, supplies continue to be slowly restored, but agencies report that thousands of households across Kent and East Sussex are still without water or experiencing very low pressure on Tuesday morning. ^[18]
South East Water says it is moving water around the network, tankering millions of litres into the town and continuing deliveries to vulnerable residents while the system gradually repressurises. ^[19]

How residents and businesses are being hit

Queues for bottled water and basic hygiene

Bottled water stations have become the only reliable source of supply for many residents. Three main sites have been operating extended hours in Tunbridge Wells:

Tunbridge Wells Sports Centre, St John’s Road
RCP car park, Tunbridge Wells
Odeon Cinema, Knights Way

These locations have been repeatedly confirmed by Sky News, ITV and South East Water. ^[20]

Residents describe queuing for hours in cold, wet weather to collect water for drinking, cooking and flushing toilets. Local media report that the company has tankered over three million litres into the town and delivered bottled water directly to more than 2,000 priority customers, including elderly and medically vulnerable people. ^[21]

Vulnerable people “scared” of running out

ITV highlighted the case of a disabled resident whose kidney function is severely impaired and who relies on a regular, safe water supply to manage his condition. He described feeling “scared” and “uncertain” after spending hours on the phone trying to secure bottled water deliveries. ^[22]

Other reports mention care homes and people who need water for self‑catheterisation facing acute anxiety as they wait for deliveries or queue at distribution points. ^[23]

Closed schools, shuttered pubs and lost takings

The outage has also hit the local economy at one of the busiest times of the year:

Multiple primary and secondary schools remained shut on Monday, forcing parents to juggle childcare and work. ^[24]
Pubs and restaurants have closed because they cannot meet basic hygiene requirements without running water, including the Black Horse pub on Camden Road, which reported losing hundreds of pounds in “wet trade” in a single day. ^[25]
A prominent local hotelier told ITV he had to cancel bookings and estimated losses of about £6,000 in one day alone, expressing deep scepticism that compensation would match the financial damage. ^[26]

Residents quoted by KentOnline and other outlets describe the situation as “utter chaos” and “a nightmare”, with families struggling to manage basic sanitation at home. ^[27]

Political fallout: “utter disgrace” and calls for the CEO to quit

The crisis has quickly escalated into a political row about South East Water’s leadership and resilience.

Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin, who represents Tunbridge Wells and has himself been affected by the outage, has publicly demanded that chief executive David Hinton resign. ^[28]

In interviews and social media posts, Martin has argued that:

Residents were promised lessons had been learned after a six‑day outage in 2022, yet the town is again facing prolonged disruption. ^[29]
Communication from South East Water has been “utterly appalling”, with estimated restoration times repeatedly revised, leading people to make plans that then collapsed. ^[30]
Vulnerable people, care homes and local businesses have been put at risk or pushed towards serious financial loss because of failures in crisis management and resilience. ^[31]

Speaking to broadcasters, Martin has called the situation a “total failure of leadership” and said he would not stop pressing the issue until Hinton “resigns or is sacked”. ^[32]

South East Water, for its part, has largely stuck to operational statements, repeatedly saying it is “very sorry” for the disruption and that its immediate focus is on restoring supplies before any full investigation into what went wrong. ^[33]

Why South East Water was already under scrutiny

This incident comes against a difficult backdrop for South East Water, which has been under formal investigation by the regulator Ofwat since 2023 over its poor record on supply interruptions. ^[34]

Key points from Ofwat’s enforcement case include:

South East Water has been classed as the worst performer for supply interruptions in England and Wales in recent years.
In the 2022–23 financial year, customers lost an average of over three hours of supply per property, compared with a target of less than six minutes. ^[35]
The regulator has questioned whether the company has “failed to develop and maintain an efficient water supply system” and demanded a detailed service improvement plan. ^[36]

Separate to the current emergency, the company has also imposed repeated hosepipe bans in Kent and Sussex in recent dry periods, highlighting the pressure on water resources and infrastructure in the region. ^[37]

The Tunbridge Wells outage is therefore likely to intensify scrutiny from regulators, politicians and the public over whether South East Water is fit to deliver reliable service in a changing climate and growing region.

A wider crisis in England’s water industry

The Tunbridge Wells disruption is unfolding at the same time as broader anger over the performance of water companies across England.

On the same day residents in Tunbridge Wells entered a fourth day of dry taps, communities along the River Thames filed coordinated legal complaints over sewage pollution by Thames Water. Campaigners argue that repeated discharges of raw and poorly treated effluent are harming health, recreation and local businesses along the river. ^[38]

Key details from that action include:

Residents in at least 13 areas, including Hackney, Oxford, Richmond upon Thames and Wokingham, are submitting statutory nuisance complaints to their councils, demanding decisive action. ^[39]
Data obtained from regulators and citizen testing suggests discharges at some Thames Water facilities have increased dramatically in recent years, with E. coli levels far above safe thresholds for bathing. ^[40]
Thames Water, already fined heavily for previous breaches, has asked to charge customers more than £1bn to fund delayed upgrades – a proposal regulators have partly refused, arguing bill payers have already paid for this work. ^[41]

Taken together, the Thames pollution complaints and the Tunbridge Wells water outage feed into a wider debate about how England’s privatised water companies are regulated, how they invest in infrastructure and whether they are delivering value for money.

What happens next for Tunbridge Wells?

In the short term, the priority is clear: restore reliable water to every home, school, business and public service in Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding villages.

Over the coming days, residents can expect:

Gradual restoration of supply as storage tanks at Pembury are refilled and the system repressurised. Some properties may see intermittent supply or discoloured water as deposits in the mains are disturbed; South East Water says this is expected and usually temporary. ^[42]
Continued bottled water provision, with distribution points and deliveries to vulnerable people remaining in place until the network is stable. ^[43]
Automatic compensation once the incident is formally closed, according to the company’s commitment to address payouts without customers having to claim individually. ^[44]

In the medium term, pressure will mount for:

A full, transparent investigation into how a bad batch of chemicals could lead to four days of disruption for tens of thousands of people.
Clear answers on why early estimates of affected properties were so far off, and why public communication has been so confusing. TS2 Tech+1
Stronger regulatory oversight, building on Ofwat’s ongoing enforcement case, and potentially renewed calls for structural reform of the sector. ^[45]

For residents of Tunbridge Wells, the immediate hope is simple: water back at the tap, and soon. But once the crisis passes, the bigger questions about resilience, accountability and investment in England’s water infrastructure are likely to remain firmly on the national agenda.