Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club forced to close after being 'let down' by South East Water

The hotel has shut off its 106 bedrooms, two restaurants, afternoon tea service, spa and treatment rooms after its water supplies were cut off due to Storms Eunice and Franklin.

Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club in East Sussex has had to temporary close as a result of lack of water supply after recent storms.

The hotel has shut off its 106 bedrooms, two restaurants, afternoon tea service, spa and treatment rooms after its water supplies were cut off due to Storms Eunice and Franklin.

The hotel’s water supply has been off since Friday, February 18 and the hotel general manager said South East Water had let the company down 'hugely'.

Ben Booker, general manager at Ashdown Park Hotel, says: “The hotel was forced to take the decision to close to guests on Sunday morning; we are simply unable to deliver acceptable levels of service without running water.

“The resulting compensation to Saturday night’s guests alone was in the region of £15,000. We have since lost between £15,000 and £20,000 daily - a combination of loss of accommodation, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner income, plus Spa Day and treatment revenue. That is a huge amount of lost income, especially when our running costs continue to mount."

Mr Brooker described the water supplier's lack of communication as 'both pitiful and shambolic'. He said despite numerous attempts to speak with a senior manager, no-one has been available or returned the hotel's calls.

He continued: “To add insult to injury, South East Water did not even deliver bottled water to the hotel until late Sunday night, two days after the supply was cut off.

“We have in the region of 40 staff living on site. All have been without water facilities since Friday night. This is a significant inconvenience to everyone and, naturally, we still have to pay our staff despite the fact that they cannot work.

“I cannot overstate the damage that this lack of a basic water supply is causing to our business – made worse, of course, by coming immediately on top of the dreadful Covid pandemic."

Mr Brooker claims even when the water supply is restored, it will take and estimated 24 hours to get the hotel operational again.

Ben Brooker explained: “Our losses continue to mount, and we continue to disappoint guests who were due to visit.

"It is frankly untenable. We need urgent action by South East Water to enable the hotel to re-open as quickly as possible. The courtesy of a call from a South East Water manager would be also be appreciated, to give us some idea of the likely timescale involved.

“It is simply awful to have had to let down our valued guests over the past five days."

Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club said it is looking forward to reopening and welcoming back guests in the near future.

Steve Andrews, SEW incident manager, said: "The high winds caused by Storm Eunice caused extensive damage to power cables across the South East.

"Our treatment works and distribution pumps move and treat water around our extensive pipeline network and the majority of these are covered by alternative power options, including generators.

"However, the power disruption we experienced during this incident is entirely unprecedented and unlike anything we have ever seen before – losing power to more than 100 of our vital distribution assets.

"We have been working very closely with UK Power Networks (UKPN) as it repairs extensive damage to its cables and infrastructure and have brought in additional generators to get our sites up and running again.

"While repairs to the electricity network have been taking place areas have remained without water or have had intermittent supplies while UK Power Networks continue to turn electricity on and off to safely make their repairs.

"We are sorry to all our customers and business who have been affected and our team has been, and continues to, work tirelessly to restore supplies as quickly and safely as possible.

“Our incident team was aware of the issues experienced by Ashdown Park Hotel after the manager made contact at the weekend, however our priority throughout this complex, and ever changing situation, has been to ensure our most vulnerable customers and sites, such as hospitals and care homes, receive additional water.”

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