Residents at a block of flats have spoken of their anger at losing access to running water on the hottest weekend of the year.

People in rented properties at Bakers Court on North Street, Ashford, were unable to flush their toilets or use showers and baths after losing the supply because of a fault at the end of June.

Temperatures in Kent hit 30c on Saturday, June 29 making it the hottest day of the year so far.

Mother-of-two Sam Cox, 25, who is 29 weeks pregnant, said: “There are three or four heavily pregnant women, including myself, and all with young children.

“I had to keep a bottle of water to clean my children in the morning. No water coming out of the taps, not even a drip when you turn the tap on. My house stinks, it smells like a boy’s urinal as we can’t flush the toilet.”

She added: “Even if it’s freezing cold, lugging lots of water across a car park at 29 weeks pregnant isn’t ideal. Picking up buckets of water just to flush the toilet, it’s not something you want to be doing.

“The containers are still in the car park and I’ve kept my bottles and buckets just in case it goes off again.”

Following calls to property manager Clarion Housing Association, staff allegedly “arrived and gave one person three bottles of water and left” according to 25-year-old tenant Jessica Spence.

Ms Spence - who is eight-and-a-half months pregnant and has two children - added: “The water came back on on Friday for literally half an hour and Clarion came around and said, ‘use it, because when it’s gone it’s gone."

The water soon ran out and the housing association returned the next day with large water tanks, which they stationed in the building’s car park.

Ms Spence noted: “I’m heavily pregnant so having to go up and down the stairs just to get a drink isn’t an option - I had to end up buying my own water.

“It’s cost me a fortune in taxis to go to mum’s just so my kids and I can have a bath. It was my son’s birthday on Sunday so I was planning to have a birthday party here but we had to change that to a day at Victoria Park and going to my mum’s house.

“It’s been very hard not having water on the hottest weekend of the year.

“I spoke to South East Water and they said they’d have fixed it in three hours and they are quite surprised the housing association haven’t got in touch about it to help.”

A temporary fix has been put in place which gives residents limited access to running water. However, work is still underway to return the utility to full operation.

A statement from Clarion Housing Association said: “The wellbeing of our residents is our top priority and our local team and contractors have been working to restore access to water at Bakers Court.

"We arranged for the delivery of a water bowser as an interim measure and made regular deliveries of bottled water over the weekend.

"After assessing the needs of each household, we have provided temporary alternative accommodation to two households.

"Our local housing team is continuing to support and will be making regular visits to residents until the permanent fix is in place.”

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