MP demands answers after major water outage

An MP has demanded answers from SES Water after reports that vulnerable residents were left without support during a major water outage.

Chris Coghlan, MP for Dorking and Horley, said some people told him they were not contacted about bottled water deliveries, despite being on the Priority Services Register.

The disruption, caused by a power failure at SES Water's Bough Beech Water Treatment Works, affected Gatwick Airport and large parts of the Horley area on Sunday.

SES Water said it was reviewing its response, adding: "We want to provide the best possible service to customers when third-party power outages affect our network."

In a letter to the company, the Liberal Democrat MP said one resident reported spending hours on hold on the phone before being cut off while trying to get help, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

He asked SES Water how it identified and contacted customers in need, whether people on the register had been successfully reached and whether its contingency plans had worked effectively.

Horley resident Alan Boughen said his family noticed the problem at about 09:30 BST when water pressure became "extremely low".

"You couldn't do the washing up or take a shower," he said.

"But where it was more problematic was for the older residents living around us. A lot of them didn't have access to water."

He said neighbours "rallied around" to deliver bottled water to vulnerable residents who were left without supplies.

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