Residents of Polegate and Willingdon are facing water supply issues with little or no water. A burst main has caused the disruption, and teams from South East Water worked throughout the night to repair it and restore fresh water to thousands of locals.
This morning at 9:14 am, it was reported that a local school, Willingdon Community School, had to close due to the lack of fresh water supply. Meanwhile, hundreds of residents were awaiting bottled water, which had arrived but teams were awaiting authorisation to distribute it.

At 9:44 am, one pallet of bottled water arrived at Polegate War Memorial Recreation Ground, and South East Water was seeking a more suitable location to set up a water station to supply affected residents. At 10:08 am, more courtesy water was offloaded, and South East Water assured customers that water should be restored to the majority of customers that morning.
At 11:08 am, it was reported that parts of Wannock Road in Polegate had been closed to enable teams to continue their efforts to find the source of the burst water main. South East Water believed they were close to finding where the pipe had burst and was currently diverting water to households without supply.

At 11:13 am, due to the nature of the incident on Wannock Road, water was being pumped into the Wannock Mill Stream. The Environment Agency South East was aware of this and would ensure any pollution was monitored.
This afternoon at 2:44 pm, Wannock Road remained closed in both directions while teams continued their work to repair the damaged pipes.

Special thanks to Nathan Dunbar for his work covering this on social media throughout the day.