Village struggles with water disruption after neighbouring sinkhole repair works
Long-standing water supply issues affecting Bletchingley residents
Last updated 10th Aug 2026
Residents of a Surrey village have reported low water pressure and “hours of murky and brown water” for more than a year while works on the nearby Godstone sinkhole were ongoing.
Godstone’s High Street reopened last week following a year and a half of roadworks caused by a major sinkhole that emerged in February 2025.
The closure resulted in major highways disruption, leading to the village’s businesses imploring the council for additional tax relief to mitigate the loss of trade.
Both Surrey County Council highways teams and SES Water have been involved in the repair works over the past few months, which wrapped up at the end of July.
But residents of nearby Bletchingley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) of major problems with their water supply over the past year and a half, with frequent bouts of low pressure experienced across the village.
Bletchingley resident Paul Sherlock said the past 18 months had been “extremely frustrating”, as the village was never able to be “fully confident of our water supply”.
He told the LDRS: “The level of information being provided to us was poor. At one point, we were told that it was not known why a problem had occurred by customer services.
“Yet, when an engineer came to investigate, he stated that a water loss should have been foreseen due to some works which were being undertaken locally.”
His sentiments were echoed by Robert Setters, who faced numerous incidents of intermittent supply over the past year – and bemoaned the lack of communication received from SES Water.
“It’s worse in the summer months as more people are using water, and after a low pressure event it’s often followed by hours of murky and brown water,” he told the LDRS.
Mr Setters added: “I have a daughter who has an immune deficiency, and keeping her clean and in a safe environment has been hard as we can’t always bathe her when we get home from work – and sometimes can’t even flush the toilets.”
Since the issues began, his family of four received 12 litres of bottled water in total – despite Ofwat guidelines saying companies have to provide at least 10 litres of water per person for each day to affected consumers within the first 24 hours.
East Surrey MP Claire Coutinho has written to SES Water, calling on the company to offer goodwill payments to Bletchingley residents following the disruption.
“Bletchingley residents have been let down by SES Water,” she told the LDRS. “The company was too slow to act, unresponsive to complaints, and hid behind a ‘computer says no’ attitude.”
She surveyed the village’s residents, and found that 80 per cent had suffered repeated low pressure – and that just one in eight vulnerable households received water when their taps ran dry.
“SES Water committed to look at making a goodwill payment to all households once works in Godstone were complete,” Ms Coutinho added.
“Now this has happened, I have written to demand they follow through – it’s the least residents deserve.”
An SES Water spokesperson said: “We recognise that some customers in Bletchingley experienced disruption while a temporary supply arrangement was in place following the road collapse in Godstone.
“Our teams worked hard to maintain pressure, and customers entitled to compensation have received payments, as well as goodwill compensation in some cases.
“With our project now complete, Bletchingley is once again supplied via its usual route.”