An MP says she has been given the answers to why around 5,000 homes were left without water, some for as long as three days - and she isn’t happy.

A storm on Sunday, January 26, caused a power cut at the Sevenoaks Water Treatment Plant which led to either a failure of supply or very low water pressures across much of Sevenoaks and Tonbridge.

Water bowsers had to be bought in and bottled water banks set up. Meanwhile, schools and businesses were closed.

The problems were widely declared to be unacceptable and Sevenoaks MP Laura Trott said: “Afterwards, people wanted to know why they were not advised of the difficulties sooner and why there was not a back-up generator at the plant.”

She has discovered that South East Water deliberately took the decision not to warn people when the power first went off at the treatment works.

Posting on social media, the MP said: “Unfortunately, they have found in the past that an early alert can in fact see people increase their water use, which drains the reserve tanks still quicker.

“In this instance, they decided not to warn people on [the] Sunday.

“I’ve shared my disappointment at that decision with them as it’s clear that residents desire to be informed sooner rather than later.”

Ms Trott was told that there was a back-up generator in place but it developed a mechanical fault and also failed.

As a result, although the power was off, water from the boreholes continued to pour into the site, so even once power was restored, South East Water had to first remove all the untreated water to ensure that it only pumped out water of the correct standard to the drinking water reservoirs, which had caused further delays.

Ms Trott said: “South East Water tells me that all the faulty components have now been replaced and spares are to hand. Therefore, should there be similar circumstances again, this should enable the site to get up and running far quicker.”

South East Water had earlier said that although the water treatment works were back in operation on the Monday and had begun the process of refilling the drinking water storage tanks that feed the area, there had been complications because of the “hilly nature” of the terrain.

Airlocks had formed in some pipes stopping water flow, and these had to be individually cleared by its engineers.

South East Water’s incident manager Phil Jones explained: “Airlocks, which arose from the pipes emptying and refilling, can prevent water from moving around the area.”