Rye business offered £75 in compensation from Southern Water after losing £30,000 during outage

A business which lost more than £30,000 during a water supply outage says the compensation it's been offered is a joke.

Customers in Rye and Camber went without water for several days in September after supplies were cut by a burst main at Udimore Reservoir.

The Mermaid Inn in Rye was forced to close and lost £30,000 through cancelled bookings. Judith Blincow said everything stopped, "All the equipment wouldn't work, because it all requires water pressure."

She added: "But the biggest thing is health and safety because you can't offer rooms without washing facilities, toilet facilities, and yeah, total disaster."

Ms Blincow said she had to cancel more than 380 reservations and the compensation she's been offered has only added insult to injury.

She said: "I've actually been offered the grand sum of £75 for my loss of £30,000 and a lovely letter saying how sorry they are and they can understand what impact it must have taken on us.

"I tried very hard not to laugh out loud. Water is a necessity for everybody and they should have invested in that necessity."

Around 5,000 properties were affected when a huge pipe under a railway line burst.

Southern Water set up bottled water stations and also delivered some supplies as they carried out the challenging repair.

In a statement, Southern Water said, "We would like to apologise again to all those affected by the loss of supply and low water pressure in Rye.

"The situation was particularly challenging at the time, due to the burst pipe’s location under the railway line and was fixed as quickly as possible, as we worked round the clock to restore supply.

"In terms of compensation for people affected, we have made payments totalling £173,300 to 2,705 customers through our Guaranteed Standards Scheme (GSS), in amounts varying from £30-£300.

"As a further apology, we are looking into making grants to community organisations in Rye, to reaffirm our commitment to the customers and communities we serve."

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