PUBLIC MEETINGS REGARDING WATER SUPPLY IN BENENDEN 7th and 24th September

PUBLIC MEETINGS REGARDING WATER SUPPLY IN BENENDEN

The Water for Benenden action group has arranged a public meeting at the Centenary Hall in Benenden School at 6.30pm on Monday 7th September.

The SE Water CEO, John Halsall, and his team will be attending along with residents, farmers and businesses such as Benenden Hospital.

This will be an opportunity for the action group to explain what has been achieved so far to solve our water supply problems, and what we can expect SE Water to commit to in the future. While our water supply is back on for now, we do expect outages to occur again, and we want SEW to commit to improvement plans and dates that can be monitored and held to account by Benenden Parish Council.

SE Water have committed to deliver the following by 7th September:

• An explanation of how our water works and why it fails, see video link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1366646065554528 )
• A more effective communication mechanism than residents having to repeatedly phone to report a problem.
• A short-term plan for sustaining water in Benenden and the surrounding area.
• The 2030 investment cycle plan for sustaining water in Benenden (they have £1.9bn to spend 2025-2030 and you can learn more about this at: https://cdn.southeastwater.co.uk/SewHousehold/Documents/WEB_V1_SEW_Comms_26_089_Delivery_plan_2025_to_2030_Progress_report_AUGUST_2026.pdf)

This will be followed by a Q&A session to quiz SE Water representatives on matters that need further explanation, or you feel have been overlooked.

Following this meeting, any outstanding matters will then be followed up at the meeting to be held at 7pm on 24th September in the Memorial Hall when the CEO and his team are here again. The Parish Council will pick up the monitoring of SEW’s actions moving forward, with the Water for Benenden group on standby for high energy protests if our water supply is disrupted again.

The Water for Benenden group has managed to get a lot of collaboration going across the village communities and with SE Water. Whilst bad news creates headlines, maybe it is time for "good community action can get a result”. Here’s to 100% of taps running 100% of the time!