Kent pub warns water outages damaging for hospitality sector
The village of Benenden has been without water for most of the last week
The owner of The Bull pub in Benenden says water issues are making it harder for the hospitality sector.
The village has had no water for the past week - though South East Water say supplies have been slowly retuning to the area over the past day.
Lucy Barron-Reid told us they felt trapped between staying open amid the outage despite it making work difficult, or going under:
"so far we've not been offered any compensation at all, nothing. And we haven't closed for that reason, because if we close for one or even 2 days, we are going to hit really hairy water.
"It's not good for us to close, so we've had to make that decision because we just cannot quantify what would happen financially to us and we know that they're not offering any help.
"In the last four years they haven't offered us anything."
She added:
"We've been here for 22 years and there have been times where we've just thought, 'can't do it anymore.'
"You know, I mean, the government, the costs, the rising, the food, the alcohol licenses, the VAT.
"Just there are so many things that are thrown at a pub and I have to say the last couple of days I've thought, you know, 22 years, I don't want to do it again.
"But we will do it again and we will get up and we will keep fighting and we will continue, because it's not just us, it's so many people are suffering from this and someone eventually will have to listen."
On the level of additional measures required of her pub during the outages Barron-Reid said:
"We have to really think outside the box to be able to cater for customers with no running water.
"So we are filling up our storage tanks in the roof with mineral water so that the boiler can heat that for hot water.
"For boiling water, we need to put huge great vats, saucepans on the hob and boil that up to put the cutlery in with a splash of Milton and make sure it reaches a certain temperature for a certain amount of time.
"The health and safety implications are paramount to us. We have to just be really careful.
"It's just really challenging. It's mentally and physically distressing and exhausting."
A spokesperson for South East Water said:
“We apologise unreservedly to all customers impacted by the disruption to their water supply and know how frustrating it is.
“We recognise the serious impact this has had on our customers. This is not the service our customers expect, nor is it the service we aim to provide.
“We abide by our Guaranteed Standards of Service (GSS) and we are fully committed to compensating our customers and businesses fairly for this disruption.
“We want to make sure every customer and business receives their entitlement.
Customers can see and download the up-to-date GSS guidance on our website.
“For business customers, any compensation paid by South East Water will go to their water retailer. It is the retailer's responsibility to apply this to their account.
"We have already begun the process of reviewing all customers and businesses impacted by the recent supply interruptions to make sure those who are eligible receive the compensation they are entitled to.”