Matfield's Low Water Pressure Drags Into a Third Day as South East Water Calls the Repair "Quite Complex"

Parts of Matfield have had low water pressure since Tuesday evening, after South East Water confirmed a burst main on its network along Maidstone Road - and by Wednesday afternoon, the company was admitting the repair was taking longer than expected. It's the latest entry in a now-familiar pattern for West Kent this year: a village-level supply problem, an apology, and a promise of updates to come.

The company's own AquAlerter map shows the incident, logged under reference 167505, first reported on Tuesday 20 October at 5:32pm: "We have investigated and confirmed a leak on South East Water apparatus. Our contractors have been instructed to carry out repairs as soon as possible." By Wednesday lunchtime that had become an apology for low pressure rather than just a leak report, and by mid-afternoon the tone had shifted again - the fix, the company said, was "proving to be quite complex." Its next scheduled update is due this morning, Thursday 22 October, at 10:30am. The affected area centres on Maidstone Road (B2160) around Matfield's village green and village hall.

Matfield's low pressure comes in a year South East Water would probably like to forget. The company's then chief executive stepped down in May after months of criticism over major outages, and in July it agreed to a £30.5 million redress package with Ofwat over repeated supply failures. Since then, West Kent alone has seen a burst main cut off almost 1,400 homes around Cranbrook, and a separate repair on Shipbourne Road in Tonbridge overrun by days after the company said the work was done. We'll update this story once South East Water confirms the Matfield repair is finished.

Source: South East Water, AquAlerter incident 167505