A water company has been told not to conserve supplies by cutting its flow from a reservoir to a river because it would endanger wildlife.

The Environment Agency has ruled Southern Water cannot halve supplies released from the Weir Wood reservoir into the River Medway from 5.4 megalitres to 2.5 megalitres a day and has referred its decision to Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment.

The reservoir provides drinking water for homes and businesses in Sussex but the county is facing a summer drought following the driest winter for 100 years.

Southern Water is looking for ways to conserve its reserves and applied for a drought order to cut the volume pumped into the river. But the agency said the supply from the reservoir was vital to support plant and animal life.

It ruled that 3.6 megalitres of water was the very least that should be released in a day.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: "The river is close to reaching its long-term minimum levels so this water really is vital."

A hearing with the Secretary of State for the Environment will take place on July 5 and the outcome of the drought order is expected in the following days.

Housepipe bans have been introduced across parts of Sussex as the county faces one of the worst droughts of the decade.

Meanwhile, people are annoyed leaks have taken weeks to fix despite the drought.

Neighbours at flats in Tisbury Road, Hove, say an upstairs overflow pipe which has poured water on to balconies below for more than two weeks. It is private property so water companies have no authority to fix it.

In Newhaven, Kathryn Greig, 59, of Heighton Crescent, waited 12 days for South East Water to fix a leak between the main and her household supply.

Carol Woolgar, 30, of Hythe Crescent, Seaford, said she was appalled it took South East Water two weeks to fix a leak in her road.

In Uckfield, water gushed down Alexandra Street for more than two weeks before it was eventually fixed.

Since a hosepipe ban was imposed in North Sussex on June 9 Southern Water has sent letters to 70 people reported to be breaching it and employs a night time patrol of leak busters who listen for the sound of trickling water.

For the past two years both Southern Water and South East Water have met leakage targets enforced by water regulator Ofwat.

Call South East Leak Alert Line 0800 028 3399 or Southern Water on 0800 820 999, then tell The Argus by phoning 01273 544545.