Despairing residents are calling on South East Water to make good on promises to repair a leak which has been gushing water for three months.

A succession of failures began with the water company claiming the leak in Idleigh Court Road, Meopham, could not be fixed immediately due to a nearby bees nest, back in June.

Fears over the bees proved unfounded and engineers were due to visit the site on August 23, but failed to appear, with South East Water explaining a delay meant they would be at the site on August 26.

But thousands of gallons of water has continued to gush from the leak, and care home owner Peter Rogers said frustration had turned to anger following the introduction of the hose-pipe ban.

His calls for action have now been joined by others on the street, with Dawn Aldwinckle the latest to put pressure on the firm.

She said the leak had washed away the support from fencing around her field, leaving her horses vulnerable to escape.

And she added: "Not only that, water has been cascading down the road for so long it has resulted in large potholes, I have lost one tyre where they look like puddles.

"It’s ridiculous that hose pipe bans and requests to save water are being issued and yet the water board continue to ignore the situation and allow gallons and gallons of water to flow away, and its getting worse and worse every week."

Steve Andrews, Head of Central Operations at South East Water, said: “We are very sorry to anyone who has been impacted by a leak in Idleigh Court Road, Meopham.

“During the last two months, we’ve seen a drastic 50 per cent rise in the number of leaks across our network of pipes. We are therefore prioritising these accordingly and undertaking repairs as quickly as we can.

“The increase has been caused by a number of factors, including a lack of rainfall and drying of the soil.

“A repair was completed but we have now identified a further leak at this location. This particular leak is now scheduled to be repaired on Thursday September 15.”

Land-owner Dawn dismissed the claim that a leak had been fixed at the site as "nonsense", adding: "They haven’t even lifted that manhole covers.

"If anything it’s worse now."

She said the company had offered a "litany of excuses", adding: "They need to stop making hollow promises and do their job."