Sunday Times best place to live winner Wadhurst without water for days

Wadhurst was named the best place to live in the UK by the Sunday Times in March.

But since Sunday, the water has been off for large parts of the town and the school is partially closed.

Furious residents have been without water since last Sunday, June 11.

Households in many areas of Sussex and Kent have also been without water.

The water crisis is in its sixth day. Pictured are horses in the Hadlow Down area (Image: The Argus)

The water outage has prompted fears of livestock dying from dehydration on farms in the area.

South East Water said most people in the worst affected areas should have seen their water supplies return overnight, but some places on higher ground might have no water or low pressure.

Artist Jutta Wrobel has lived in Wadhurst for 35 years.

She said: “What are we going to do about South East Water?

“I expect to be able to fill my paddling pool, five days into a heat wave.

Pallets of bottled water in Wadhurst (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

“I’m furious and I’m urging people in Wadhurst to write to the water company to complain.

“The schools are closed and the care home residents have had no water for days.

“There is a reservoir ten minutes away and I’m going to organise a public washing in it.

“This is supposed to be the best place to live in Britain but we have no doctors, no water and the village is congested most of the time with cars driving around the massive potholes.

“The best village in Britain is just a reality TV thing.

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“Do the people investing in South East Water know what the company are doing?

“The massive Bewl Water reservoir is ten minutes away and I think it’s time for direct action.

“People who have pools have undoubtedly paid tax over the years.

“We had three days without water just before Christmas, so the water going off now is nothing to do with the heat,” Jutta said.

Not everywhere in the town has been affected.

GCSE students at Uplands Academy still managed to sit their exams in the sweltering heat.

Wadhurst is one of many towns and villages that has been without water (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

People believe over development is putting pressure on infrastructure.

South East Water staff have been coming out of the office to volunteer at bottled water distribution hubs.

Staff were dropping two dozen 2l bottles each to a steady stream of cars at Sparrows Green recreation park.

“When the water goes back on, it won’t last very long unless the root problems are faced by South East Water,” Jutta said.

Wadhurst CE Primary School has been closed to most pupils since Tuesday.

Teachers have set up hand washing stations and using bottled water to keep the school going for older children.

Wadhurst CE Primary School has been affected by the water shortage (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

Beryl Alexander, 86, lives next to the water distribution hub in Wadhurst, which is East of Crowborough.

She said adapting to having no water was like living through the war.

“We had to adapt in the war and it’s just like that now.

“We’ve not had any water since Monday.

“I rang them up this morning and by this afternoon we had a trickle.

“It has been chaos, a debacle.

“They are building houses and the water system can’t take it.

“We’ve had to adapt.

“We’ve gone to eating salads, so we don’t have to cook.

“I’ve always been careful with water anyway but this has been a debacle.”

South East Water staff helping load up cars with bottled water (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

South East Water incident manager Steve Andrews said: “Most customers in the worst affected areas should have seen their tap water supplies return overnight.

“However, some customers on higher ground may still have no water or low pressure.

“We will continue to do all we can to increase levels in our treated water storage reservoirs, but demand is still high, despite the announcement of a hosepipe ban yesterday in Kent and Sussex.

“We need everyone to just use water for essential purposes.

“Our bottled water collection stations will open again at 10am today and our customer care team will continue to help those on our priority services register.

“We know this has been a very difficult time for customers and once again, we do apologise for the frustration and inconvenience these issues have caused.”