Once upon a time, Royal Tunbridge Wells sold water as a miracle cure. Edward VII had it declared “Royal” because his mother, Queen Victoria, was one of many admirers of the spa town’s springs, which promised health and reassurance. Last week, the town was reminded how hollow promises can be when water stops being safe.
Around 24,000 local residents found themselves on a modern-day ration when the supply was cut off because of a disinfection problem at a water treatment works. People were queuing for bottled water, schools were disrupted for almost a week, GP surgeries and the hospital scrambled. A town was made to feel suddenly fragile by the thing that ought to be most mundane.
How does this happen in 2025? South East Water said the proximate cause was a “bad batch” of coagulant chemical at the local Pembury treatment works, which forced a shutdown on 29 November.
But, a year ago, the Drinking Water Inspectorate warned Pembury posed a “significant risk”, needing urgent upgrades to tanks and lagoons to prevent contamination. Those warnings were not heeded with the speed or investment people should expect. That is not an accident; it is institutional failure.
When the inevitable occurred earlier this month, communications were lame. For days, people who had no water, or only low pressure, waited for clear public guidance. The company’s decision to slowly repressurise the network – apparently, sensible in engineering terms – was badly explained; the subsequent “precautionary” boil notice came only after supplies were restored for flushing, leaving bewildered residents furious.
The regulator has now launched an investigation into what happened and how it was communicated. That scrutiny is essential: locals’ lives were inconvenienced and, for some, endangered. Worse was the apparent repetition of error.
After initial works to refill the system, the same water-quality problem recurred, suggesting the fix was provisional and the checks inadequate. It was the result of political and managerial failure: deferred maintenance, underinvestment and systems run on budgetary requirements, rather than engineering rigour.
And then there is leadership failure. David Hinton, the £450k-a-year chief executive of South East Water, has declined to grant interviews while the crisis unfolded. What is a CEO for if not to explain and be accountable? In an industry that pays handsomely and is protected by franchise, the absence of visible leadership looks like a refusal to accept responsibility.
A “shocked” Prime Minister has demanded answers; ministers have sought urgency. Good. The spectacle of a town coping without tap water should not be met by corporate silence.
This is more than a local scandal. It is a metaphor for broken Britain: vital public utilities run as private quasi-monopolies; short on investment, long on excuses. Meanwhile, regulators play catch-up and customers are left improvising basic survival.
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The community’s solidarity – neighbours sharing supplies, charities opening distribution points – is noble. But compassion cannot substitute for competence.
If Royal Tunbridge Wells’ historic brand was health and wellness, this fiasco should be a wake-up call: to regulators, politicians and all businesses that treat public necessity as pure profit and loss.
The springs that made the town famous once provided relief; today’s systems must do the same – and transparently so, with leaders who will front up when they fail. Until then, it’s small wonder that residents of Tunbridge Wells are disgusted.
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