MP Gordon Henderson has demanded a top level meeting with water bosses after hearing they ignored advice to build a second supply pipe onto Sheppey seven years ago.

The island was was left without supplies for almost three days after the 18-inch main which runs under The Swale burst in two places last weekend.

More than 20,000 homes and holiday parks had dry taps from Tuesday morning to Thursday afternoon when two reservoirs ran empty.

Mr Henderson, MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, who lives on the Island and had also been left without water, met Southern Water's director of quality and environment Toby Willison on Thursday. (July 14)

He said: "I went over the many problems Islanders faced and I was given a firm commitment there will be a high-level meeting of directors, with my involvement, to devise a plan, as soon as possible, to ensure the resilience of water supply to Sheppey will be improved."

Residents on the Island are also calling for a better water infrastructure to be introduced and have set up petitions calling for urgent action to be taken.

Mr Henderson added: "I will be pressing for a secondary pipe to be laid to the Island and was given a commitment that contingency plans will be improved in case there is another burst."

He said: "Back in 2016 they said they would take steps to provide the resilience we needed. They acknowledged that was promised but never delivered which is why they have agreed to come up with a plan to solve the problem now.

"I would be very surprised and disappointed if it didn't include a secondary pipe. I'm not fussed if it is one which can be switched over to in an emergency or used as second delivery pipe. We just something so if there is a problem with one pipe there is immediate access to another.

"We have to recognise that the water infrastructure on Sheppey is Victorian in some places, pre-war in others and post-war in the rest. That was probably OK when there were only six, seven or eight thousand homes but now there are 24,000 homes which is the equivalent of 60,000 people plus businesses.

"Southern Water must come up with a solution to cater for that and they recognise that."

He also hit out at the distribution of water bottle distribution centres.

He said: "I was surprised they did not immediately put a water distribution centre at Neats Court which is where they put it in 2016.

"I couldn't understand the choice of putting the first one in Leysdown and at the wrong site. It should have been on the boot fair ground. And they shouldn't have put one at the prisons at Eastchurch. That caused a lot of congestion."

He added: "Although they distributed to 2,000 people on their priority list, that list had not been kept up to date. I've asked them to find a way of updating it on an annual basis."

He said sharing information about vulnerable and at-risk people between, Swale council and the water company risked breaching data protection laws but added: "I am going to contact the Cabinet Office to see if there is any way of co-ordinating priority registers without infringing on the Data Protection Act."

He added: "I am hoping we will see an improvement. I was told they would be urgently working on finding a way to ensure this doesn't happen again - and I will hold them to that."

The meeting came after furious residents demanded an investigation into how the Island was left without water for the third time since 2016. That time, Islanders had no water for 12 hours when a pipe beneath the A249 at Bobbing burst.

The following year the pipe, which also runs under the Kingsferry Bridge, sprung a leak and knocked out supplies again.

Each time, a fleet of tankers has been needed to try to keep the Island's two reservoirs at Kingsborough, Chequers, and at Southdown, Halfway, topped up.

Southern Water pledged to make a donation of £10,000 to two Island charities as a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience caused and promised the cost of dealing with the burst main would not lead to an increase in bills for 2016/17.

Last week, resident Robert Dawson launched a petition here calling on the government to replace or upgrade Sheppey's water link with the mainland. bit.ly/3Pm1m5D

Other residents are also calling for a better water infrastructure on the Island.

Elizabeth Price, who has lived in Minster for nearly 30 years, has also started a petition in a bid to gain funding for Sheppey to have adequate infrastructure to match the ever-increasing influx of population.

The petition is aimed at MP Gordon Henderson and is pledging him "to address the issue with urgency".

Mrs Price said: "The Island was without water for nearly three days. In such a modern society, this is totally unacceptable and could have been prevented if the water infrastructure had been modernised along with the thousands of new homes being built, putting extra strain on an already antiquated system.

"Frequent leaks on a regular basis have been tolerated thus far, but those days last week brought this issue to a head and this simply cannot continue."

The 57-year-old added: "Therefore, we are campaigning for Sheppey to gain funding for adequate infrastructure to match the increased influx of population due to the mass ongoing building on the Island."

"Frequent leaks on a regular basis have been tolerated thus far, but those days last week brought this issue to a head and this simply cannot continue..."

Mrs Price, a former Union representative for the Isle of Sheppey Academy, said she would like Mr Henderson to address the issue with urgency to prevent a similar crisis from happening again.

"We would also like new housing plans to be suspended or postponed until plans are put in place to update our Island infrastructure to match the population increase."

The petition here, was set up on Wednesday and so far has 963 of its target 1,000 signatures. July 13 bit.ly/3aSkiKm