South East Water boss quits after supply failures

The chief executive of a water company which was heavily criticised after severe supply issues caused misery for tens of thousands of people over winter has resigned.

South East Water said David Hinton had decided to step down but would remain in post "to allow an orderly transition over the summer period".

"He feels his position has become an increasing distraction from South East Water's most important priority, which is to deliver a resilient water supply for its customers," the company said.

Several MPs had called for Hinton to go after 24,000 properties in Kent and Sussex lost water or had low pressure in November and December, and just weeks later up to 30,000 were hit with more issues.

His exit was confirmed seven days after Chris Train, the chair of South East Water, resigned in the wake of a damning select committee report into the issues.

Interim chair Lisa Clement said: "The board acknowledges and thanks Dave for his many years of loyal dedication and service to South East Water."

Mike Martin, the MP for Tunbridge Wells, said: "From South East Water's point of view it's a good day to bury bad news with the results of the local elections.

"It's good that Dave Hinton has done the right thing and resigned."

Martin told BBC Radio Kent it was "extremely important that we get new leadership in place". He also said he wanted the next chair and chief executive to be outside hires.

Alistair Carmichael MP, who chairs the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said the resignation was "obviously the right thing for him to have done" but added: "I don't think that South East Water is yet off the watchlist."

"This is a company that as far as I can see hasn't started yet the necessary process of turning things around," he said.

The committee's highly critical report, published on 1 May, accused the water company of poor leadership, weak governance and a culture where nobody was held accountable.

Most of Tunbridge Wells and some surrounding areas experienced low pressure or no tap water at all between 29 November and 4 December.

South East Water attributed this to a disinfection problem at Pembury Water Treatment Works.

For the following nine days, residents were told to boil the restored tap water before consumption.

Part of the town was affected again in January - along with areas such as East Grinstead, Maidstone, and Canterbury – and the company blamed this outage on Storm Goretti and cold weather.