Villagers' concern over leak left for months

A water leak which has been ongoing in a village for almost three months has left residents concerned about the damage it could be causing.

South East Water said it was made aware of the leak in Marden, Kent, on 14 February, but despite instructing contractors to fix the leak, it is still running.

Resident Paul West said: "It's quite frustrating. If it is an actual water main pipe...there's all that millions of gallons of water that's just gone to waste."

Garth Haselgrove, distribution manager for South East Water, said engineers had been out to locate the source of the leak and work would start on 7 May.

Mr West said the leak had been causing disruption in the village as vehicles were trying to avoid it.

He added: "What we're concerned about in the village [is] because there's a lot of water moving underground, it could cause subsidence and we don't want a huge sinkhole to appear."

Hugo Mozsarik, who works at a garage next to the leak in Church Green, said a 50-60 yds (46-55m) stretch of the road had sunk about 3in (8cm) since the leak began.

He added: "I can't understand why it's not been fixed yet because the longer they leave it, the more damage it is doing to the road and now the pathway."

The garage manager explained that he had seen people fall over where the path had become uneven.

Mr Haselgrove said: "Finding and fixing leaks and saving water is one of our top priorities, so we would like to thank customers who took the time to report this leak to us.

"We're sorry for the disruption the repair work will cause and will work as quickly as we can to complete this."

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