A village pub is fighting to stay open for one of its busiet weekends of the year after seeing water supplies dry up over the last five days.

Lucy Barron-Reid, owner of The Bull at Benenden, in The Street, Cranbrook, hopes to still be serving punters as they have 120 guests booked for Sunday lunch on Father’s Day.

But the landlady admits it is not going to be easy and the pub is relying on the goodwill of neighbours who have been turning up throughout the week with buckets and watering cans.

Each have been filled with water which staff have been transporting to the attic to fill hot water tanks.

Lucy said the biggest issue has been keeping up their health and safety standards with issues cleaning the crockery and cutlery and flushing the toilets.

She told KentOnline: “We have been sterilising cutlery in buckets of water boiled to 100 degrees as we can’t run the dishwashers.”

While she said keeping toilets hygienic is an ongoing battle.

“As soon as someone uses the toilet we have to go in straight after them and flush it with a bucket of water,” she added. “We have anti-bac everywhere.”

But Lucy, who has been running the pub for nineteen years, said as long as she is keeping to health and safety standards she has no intention of closing.

“We are living hand to mouth at the moment,” she said. “We can’t afford to close.”

With gas and electric bills rocketting to £8,000, “ridiculously” high energy bills, staffing issues and the cost of living crisis, Lucy says the pub has been through the mill in recent years.

She said: “We have had to completely adapt and we are doing everything we possibly can from a health and safety perspective to ensure we can stay open.”

We are living hand to mouth at the moment. We can’t afford to close

And the problem feels like deja vu for Lucy as the pub had the exact same issue in December,” she added.

“We had no water for five days during our busiest time of year in December and now again no water in high temperatures and on one of our most popular weekends.”

Lucy is struggling to understand how there can be a water shortage with so much rain in recent months and has been fighting to get answers.

She said: “South East Water have given countless reasons why we do not have water, ranging from 'they are working hard to fill reservoirs while usage is so high in this weather, ‘they have had to hold back supply and 'they are waiting for it to rain’.”

The landlady said despite her desperate need to keep her business afloat she has been told the suppliers have no intention of dropping off water to the pub, as they are not deemed vulnerable.

Lucy added: “All we want is a definitive answer and some bottled water. I can’t see why we are not allowed to have compensation or an emergency supply.”

The pub is just one of many local businesses to be affected with residential properties in Tunbridge Wells also suffering a lack of water over the last week.

Benenden School, between Cranbrook and Tenterden, has also been hit with the boarding school having to finance their own water supply for its 550 pupils.

Headmistress Samantha Price said: “It has been incredibly challenging and we have only remained open because we have had to resort to paying for commercial tankers to top up our water tanks on a regular basis.”

Like Lucy, Ms Price says the lack of communication from the water board has only added to the frustration.

She said: “The difficulties we have faced have been exacerbated by the poor communication from South East Water about how much longer this situation will endure and the complete lack of guidance on how to maintain operations in a residential setting.

We have had to resort to paying for commercial tankers to top up our water tanks on a regular basis

And Ms Price is calling on South East Water to come up with a solution to the recurring issue.

She said: “I would like to see a serious plan published, as soon as this latest problem is fixed, outlining what measures South East Water and other authorities will be taking to provide a reliable water supply for the longer term.”

In the meantime, the annual village fete is due to take place this weekend and organisers are battling to ensure it does not fall victim to the water supply issues.

Organiser Athena Cripps said the army of volunteers have resorted to “plan B” despite no communication from the water board as to whether it will even be needed.

She said: “No one is telling us if the issue will be sorted by the weekend so we are having to revert to plan B anyway.”

It means the organisers have been forced to hire portaloos and buy bottled water for refreshments and the first aid tent, as well as stocking up on paper plates as they have no way to wash up.

“It’s not environmentally friendly at all,” said Athena. “But we had no other choice.”

And Athena is particularly concerned because of the hot weather predicted for the event.

“We also have animals at the fete,” she said. “So we have had to buy water to put out for the horses and the dogs.”

The annual event is attended by more than 2,000 people and raises up to £15,000 for St George’s Church but the organisers have had to eat into the profit to pay for the emergency provisions.

She said: “It is taking away the profit that everyone has worked so hard for.”

Athena agrees with Ms Price that the water supplier needs to be make better provision for when the problem occurs.

“Water is an essential service and our provider has taken it away. It needs to be providing standpipes and bowzers as soon as the supply dries up.”

And she fears it is only going to get worse.

“It’s only the middle of June, just the start of the summer. We have had one week of hot weather and the service has ground to a halt.

“What on earth is going to happen for the rest of the summer?”

Today the water supplier was forced to announce a hosepipe ban in parts of Kent as demand for drinking water reached record levels this month.

Bosses at South East Water say the situation means it has left them with “no choice” but to introduce restrictions for their customers starting on June 26 and including areas such as Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks and Ashford.

It follows a prolonged period of dry weather and is coupled with the high temperatures in recent weeks.

South East Water’s CEO David Hinton said: “This situation has developed much more rapidly than last year.

“Understandably, we’ve seen customer demand increase in line with the hotter weather, however, this has impacted our ability to keep all customers in supply at all times.

“Despite asking for customers' help to use water for essential uses only, regrettably we’ve now been left with no choice but to introduce this temporary use ban restriction to protect customers supplies across Kent and Sussex.”

South East Water incident manager Steve Andrews said: “We are very sorry to our customers who have been without tap water supplies.

“This has been because we have seen very high demand in Kent due to the hot weather.

“We are doing all we can to get our storage reservoirs back to normal levels. All our water treatment works and water sources available to us are being used and we are moving water around our network to try to improve the situation.

“We are also implementing a hosepipe ban in Kent and Sussex which we hope will further reduce demand.

“We are prioritising delivery of bottled water and alternate supplies to our vulnerable customers and livestock.

“We know this situation is extremely frustrating and once again we apologise to all our customers affected.”