A furious resident says work to fix a water leak was "abandoned" for days as water "poured down the road".

Robert Vallance, who lives in Harrietsham near Maidstone said he first noticed a water leak just off of East Street almost three weeks ago and reported it to South East Water within days.

At first, the water had been "pouring" out of one side of the street but soon it was leaking from both sides.

The 55-year-old riding school manager reported the leak three days after it first started and the company took more than a week to start repairs.

Robert, who lives with his partner and their dog in East Street, said the section of road was closed and had been dug up, but was then left untouched for several days.

He said: "It's just been abandoned. It's had a big impact on traffic, and on the residents. We can even hear the water pouring out of the road from our house at night.

"A hosepipe ban is lunacy when we have gallons of water pouring down the street for almost three weeks.

"We now have a hole in the road, with the road closed off and the water leak getting worse. Just crazy."

Andy Beston, regional network manager at South East Water, said: “We’d like to thank local residents for reporting a leaking water pipe in East Street, Harrietsham. We appreciate the frustration this causes, particularly at this time, and would like to apologise for the concern and disruption caused.

“We received reports of the leak on August 21 and this was assessed on site shortly after (on August 24) by one of our expert technicians. A team was dispatched to repair the leak on Friday (August 26) but were unable to pinpoint the exact source."

He added a technician was due to be back on site on Wednesday to continue investigations into the cause of the leak.

Mr Beston said: “As a consequence of very dry ground conditions and the resulting earth movement, we have seen a 50% increase in bursts along our 9,000 miles of mains across the south east.

“Repairs are prioritised based on the impact to customers and the amount of water leaking.

“Find out more at southeastwater.co.uk/leaks or track the progress of this repair at inyourarea.digdat.co.uk/southeastwater.”

Robert said that as of Tuesday afternoon when he returned home, new roadworks were put in place on the other end of the road, just 150 metres away.

He said: "It's causing problems as large vehicles can’t get around the road block. Coming into the village from the other end, it’s not suitably signed, coming off of a near blind bend. It's an accident waiting to happen."

As of this morning, roadworks remained in place, but Robert reported that the leak was no longer pouring down the road.

Steve Andrews, South East Water Head of Central Operations, said today: “We have located a leak on a communications pipe in East Street, Harrietsham.

“This small pipe connects customer properties to our mains network and does not impact the water network.

“Due to the nature of the road, carefully planning and traffic management will be required. We are working closely with the local highways authority to arrange a date where we can safely complete the repair.”