23/09/2026
Benenden Parish Council Public meeting
To follow up on water issues experienced in Benenden with representatives from
South East Water
Thursday 24th September, 7pm, Benenden Village Hall
Benenden Parish Council asks the following questions of South East Water:
• Will the workforce and working hours be increased to deliver these projects within a shorter timescale, to reduce disruption around the frustrating logistics that occur around endless road closures?
• Unfortunately, since the meeting on 7th September, we have to already highlight an outage that occurred on 12th September. We understand this was due to three concurrent burst mains in the area, but did the digital loggers put in place work and if not, why not?
• How often and in what format will SE Water give the parish council updates with data on water supply flow and outages? Can the parish council have a named single point of contact with a senior engineer empowered to act (e.g. Silver Command), plus a direct emergency contact if outages occur out of normal working hours and at weekends?
• Can SE Water provide us with a map of the pipe network in Benenden parish, showing the locations of the digital loggers, the air valves, and the hotspot areas/pipes in the parish?
• Communications still remain a problem. Currently residents can only report problems by phoning SE Water Customer service team. Could SE Water confirm when the self-service online reporting tool will be developed, so unlisted outages can be reported without the need to call? The AquaAlert is helpful to an extent but is not interactive. Could this be improved with a simple Y/N answer from recipients as to whether water is flowing through the pipes again?
• What can SE Water do about the performance of Castle Water (water supplier to businesses in this area) in relation to outage response, restoration and communications management as well as compensation for businesses affected by water outages? Can SE Water provide a list of alternative business suppliers?
• Following on from this, we are still very concerned about the compensation for businesses where the supply is defined as non-residential. SE Water has stated that a new ‘extraordinary circumstances’ compensation scheme for business losses is to be set up by the end of October 2026. How is this progressing?
• Question to borough councillors, county councillors and MP - As a parish council, we are very limited in what pressure we can bring to bear on the performance of SE Water, and frankly we feel it is way beyond our remit to be holding a regional water company to account for what appears to be a nationwide problem. Can we, and the residents of Benenden, have reassurance that this is not just our problem, but that this is being dealt with at all levels of government up to and including the very highest level?
There will be an opportunity to take questions from the floor specific to each question.
There will also be the opportunity for parishioners to speak directly to a member of the
South East Water team at the end of the meeting.
