{"id":12178,"date":"2026-01-14T07:29:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12178"},"modified":"2026-01-14T07:29:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:29:05","slug":"schools-in-kent-and-sussex-shut-again-as-water-supply-issues-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12178","title":{"rendered":"Schools in Kent and Sussex shut again as water supply issues continue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Several schools in Sussex and Kent have been forced to close again due to ongoing water supply problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Issues began on Saturday, with South East Water (SEW) blaming the disruption on the impact of Storm Goretti and a power outage at its pumping station.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">On Tuesday, the company said about 25,000 customers still had no water or intermittent supplies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Ulcombe Church of England Primary in Kent is impacted, as well as East Grinstead schools Sackville School, Imberhorne, Estcots Primary, Ashurst Primary and The Meads Primary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">SEW, which has apologised, said on its website on Wednesday morning that there were 12 ongoing interruptions across its network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The BBC has asked the water company how many customers are still affected. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The primary school in Ulcombe said online learning would be provided for pupils, and other schools have urged parents to contact them for updates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Several schools in the counties were also closed on Monday and Tuesday because of the lack of water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Incident manager Matthew Dean previously said some of the issues were connected to the recent cold weather and a subsequent breakout of leaks and bursts across the area that left drinking water storage tanks running low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Water regulator <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c150nxlwnqzo\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"noopener\">Ofwat said it was concerned<\/a> about the supply problems amid calls for it to take action again SEW.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Several MPs have also been calling for SEW boss David Hinton, who earns a base salary of \u00a3400,000 and was paid a \u00a3115,000 bonus in 2025, to step down or to be removed from his role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Five bottled stations were open on Tuesday across East Grinstead, Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">On Monday, Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran wrote on X that a &#8220;major incident&#8221; had been declared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead also said some appointments may have to be carried out virtually.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">SEW has been approached for further details. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Schools #Kent #Sussex #shut #water #supply #issues #continue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several schools in Sussex and &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}