A salon owner is demanding compensation from a water company after he was forced to shut his business for three months.

Part of the Amazon salon at The Green, Bearsted, was covered in human waste and sewage after a leak back in June in the salon's kitchen.

Neal Metcalf, who has owned the village business for 25 years, said he was forced to ring the water company every day for months to try and come out and fix the problem.

The 57-year-old, from Canterbury, claims Southern Water originally told him a private company would need to be called out, but after ringing a private company and getting an evaluation he was told the problem needed to be fixed by Southern Water.

After weeks of back and forth and more than three visits, Mr Metcalf, who used to live in Maidstone, explained the problem was finally fixed and he was able to reopen to customers at the end of September.

The salon owner, who works on his own, was able to recover his wages through his insurance but says he has lost thousands through utility bills and losing customers who have gone elsewhere.

"I was phoning on a daily basis for weeks," he said.

"Then about three time a week towards the end as it was so depressing calling up and getting the same answers, or giving you answers just to get off the phone.

"I even contacted the CEO whose PA responded within a couple of hours but then I heard nothing again for weeks.

"Every day I'd get up and just have this hangover of having to make those phone calls and not get any answers.

"Southern Water came out and flushed it through but two days later the sewage was back up in the kitchen, so they came back and flushed it through again and put a camera down there to check it out, but said the responsibility was with someone else and I'd need a private company.

"I got the private company out and they said they could do it, but it would be around £3,000, but it is a Southern Water problem and they should do it. There was about three weeks of debate between the companies before Southern Water accepted it was there."

Mr Metcalf says he doesn't have a full understanding of how many clients he has lost, and will know more when the shop has been open for 10 weeks, but expects a lot have gone else where while he was closed.

He added: "It's hard enough now with everything which is going on. If I didn't have any savings this shop would have gone under.

"My neighbours weren't able to use their garden for the whole summer because of the smell of the sewage, that's how bad it was.

"It was like a sewage plant in here, it was somebody else's crap in my salon. It was disgusting, you couldn't be in here for five minutes.

"Southern Water were a waste of time. They didn't get it sorted for three-and-a-half months. They say they're going to get back to me as quick as possible and then weeks later I still haven't heard anything.

"I've asked for compensation on my utility bills which I've had to pay and they can cost anywhere from £1,100 to £1,200 a month.

"Luckily, we've had loyal customers returning from the likes of the village, Leeds, Hollingbourne etectera and they've helped keep the shop going."

A Southern Water spokesman said: “We are very sorry for the disruption caused to Mr Metcalf at the Amazon Salon in Bearsted and fully understand the impact the broken sewer pipe has had on him and his business.

"We have fixed the broken sewage pipe in the salon and any claims for reimbursement following costs incurred or damage to property should be sent to Mr Metcalf’s business insurer. Following a review into the incident, a gesture of goodwill has been sent to Mr Metcalf.

"At Southern Water, we take every customer complaint seriously and realise that our performance hasn’t been good enough and are determined to improve.”