A water leak remains unrepaired after two and half months, despite concerns over nearby bees proving unfounded.

Thousands of gallons of water has been lost from the leak in Idleigh Court Road, Meopham, since it was first reported in June - with South East Water initially delaying repair due to the suspected presence of a nearby honey bee nest.

When experts confirmed no bees nest was present earlier this month, the company said the leak would be scheduled as a priority, and that work would go ahead on Tuesday this week.

But engineers failed to appear, and resident Peter Rogers said frustrations were growing after being repeatedly let down by the water company.

"It's still not been repaired," he said. "They said they would come and fix it on the 23rd. That didn't happen.

"I rang them again yesterday and they're supposed to be coming back tomorrow.

"A lady rang me to say she wasn't sure why it wasn't done. She said she would ring me back and let me know but didn't.

"It's just very frustrating. It's almost ten weeks now."

Mr Rogers said he was sceptical about the claim about a bees nest from the start - stating he had seen "only a couple of bees drinking water" at the site.

Having been proved correct - and with water now eroding potholes in the road - he said residents were running out of patience and had little faith in promises over scheduled work.

"There's no bees there, they've said that now," he added. "I don't think there were any bees in the first place. There was a couple of bees drinking water but no nest, we kicked through the grass there and there wasn't anything there.

"I just think all the neighbours are frustrated. They keep saying they're going to do it.

"There's thousands of gallons of water running down the road and there's a hosepipe ban. This has been going on nearly ten weeks.

"It's just going on and on. You would think in this situation they would make an effort."

A statement from South East Water said engineers were due to repair this burst tomorrow, Friday August 26.