Councillor Paul Thomas

14/06/2026

Restore Britain Councillors working hard for their local residents and communities.

Residents are calling on the council to fix a drainage problem which leaves them worried their homes will flood every time it rains.

13/06/2026

North Loose Area SGN planned Gas Mains Work.

I had a positive meeting on Friday with SGN and their contractor and can report the following.

Lancet Lane - The road is reopened and there will be limited works for the next couple of weeks whilst they finish off the reinstatement of connections to individual properties. The section of work required in Old Drive, which could take up to two weeks, has been postponed whilst other works in the area are completed.

Pickering Street - the advance works information boards have been displayed and local information boards will be used and updated regularly for local information.

Work is due to start as planned on Monday 15th June 2026. This will commence with a trial hole outside 47 Pickering Street followed by investigations during the early part of the week. This will determine the complexity of the work and more accurate timescales.

I have been assured the aim is to complete the work prior to the commencement of the school holidays.

For those locally who wish to be added to a local email list for updates please use the link below.

The aim is to minimise the impact to local residents but due to the narrowness of the road this may be difficult in the working window of 9am to 3pm Monday to Friday. However every effort will be made to accommodate local residents. Please though do consider if you can avoid unnecessary journeys as the less interruptions the less disruptions to them carrying out the work. Consider grocery deliveries outside of their working times.

Norrington Road and Northleigh Close - no work will commence until after the school summer holidays i.e. not before Sept/Oct 2026.

I will endeavour to provide updates on this page.

If you have any concerns or issues you can email me

[email protected]

Or feel free to private message me or comment below.

Thank you for your understanding whilst these essential works are being carried out.

13/06/2026

13/06/2026

SGN Emergency Gas Repairs Park Way, Maidstone

These emergency works have had to be extended due to additional issues found whilst carrying out the work.

Following a discussion with SGN these should now be completed and road reopened by the end of 19th June 2026.

In the unlikely event of further issues presenting themselves I will provide an update.

Like me I understand the frustrations this causes to vehicle journeys.

28/05/2026

When will our woefully inadequate MP’s accept the situation we find ourselves in is years of underspend on maintenance and increasing the infrastructure.

The water companies got away with it due to the regulations and licensing set by Government.

Be brave for once and get the required work in hand to solve the problem once and for all.

If the Water Companies don’t want to do it then remove their licences to operate and get someone else in who will out customers first and fix it!

The Chief Executive of South East Water is off. Now we need new and better leadership at the top of South East Water – and urgent action to fix its problems.

Lots of you had low pressure over the last few hot days, and for some, water supplies failed altogether – yet again. And why? Just because we had a few days of very hot weather.

We know heatwaves like this are going to become much more common and we need a water system that can cope.

Thank you to everyone who signed my petition calling for the Chief Executive to go – I handed it into the head of water regulator, Ofwat, last week. I used the opportunity to put him in the picture about how bad things have got, and to flag to him the problem of 1000s more houses being built in this area in the years ahead.

New leadership provides an opportunity for South East Water to start rebuilding public trust, introduce a different management style and bring new ideas to solve problems such as managing supply on hot days.

We also need proper compensation for people and businesses who have been without water in recent outages.

I will keep pushing for improvements. Please email me with any experiences you would like me to pass onto Ofwat and/or the new leadership at South East Water.

28/05/2026

More excuses and apologies.

When will our MP’s stop blaming and accept it’s simple the infrastructure has not been maintained and increased to meet the demand.

Case in point the latest issue impacting residents in my division is simply they can’t supply the reservoir to meet peak demand. This has been the case for years.

South East Water put your hands in your pockets and pay for the required upgrades and maintenance.

Helen Grant MP and other Kent MP’s stop milking the issue for your personal image and demand drastic action. Failing that move out the way and let others do it.

I don’t want apologies and notifications to tell me I haven’t got water or may have interruptions I want the work to be carried out to ensure it never happens again!

Please can you all message me when and where you are out of water, have interrupted or low pressure. Also if you have kept a diary of this over the last five years. I’m going to build up a file and take it to them.

Enough is enough!

Latest update
Thu 28th May 2026 at 7:49 PM
LATEST UPDATE 19:50 The situation Customers across Kent are still experiencing water supply issues as a result of incredibly high demand during this heatwave. We are sincerely sorry to customers who have had interruptions or low pressure in their water supply and know how frustrating it is, especially in very hot weather. Yesterday (Wednesday 27 May) we pumped 628 million litres of water to customers across our region. This is higher than the average for this time of year, and over the weekend we were treating and pumping 100 million litres more than the daily average for May. For your area - Loose - around 1,600 customers have intermittent supply, with those on higher ground most likely to be impacted. What have we been doing? We planned for the hot weather by increasing output at our water treatment works across our supply area and putting extra water into the network. Our fleet of tankers has been working 24/7 putting an extra one million litres of water into the network in areas where demand has been extremely high and to support our stored water reservoirs. In addition we have had some leaks and bursts, while this is normal for a network of 9000 miles of pipework and 6 million joints, we have increased our teams who are out finding and fixing leaks. We're delivering bottled water to our vulnerable customers on our Priority Services Register. Since 23 May we have carried out over 10,000 deliveries to customers on our Priority Services Register. We are also encouraging all customers to: Stop using jet washes, hosepipes and sprinklers. Swap paddling pools for water blasters to keep kids cool and the car and patio can wait for a wash. Think about where you can swap tap water for recycled water. Reuse water from baths, showers and sinks in the garden. Act now, please do all you can to cut down on everything but essential water use, which is drinking, washing and cooking. We're sorry for the inconvenience caused and can reassure customers our teams are out working hard to resolve these issues as quickly as we can. If you would like further updates via SMS text message please use the form on this page and automatic updates will be sent to you.

26/05/2026

I wonder if RSPCA will step in. Animals also have to go without.

Try telling Rolo and Toby why there’s no water for them without warning! No chance to fill pots and pans for essentials. No bottled water to collect!

Thank you

26/05/2026

South East Water Not Fit For Purpose

I sat on the Short Focused Inquiry carried out by KCC looking into the Water Supply Issue.

Our MP's two of which are woefully inadequate Helen Whately MP @ Helen Grant MP our other one Katie Lam who's doing a reasonable job all called for resignations of Executives at SEW. They got the result but who's now dealing with the issue?

In areas of Maidstone South KCC Division we've had no water during peak periods for the last two days. Not good enough. Deliver what we pay for!

To rub salt into the wounds we have increased water bills and to cap it all a plea from South East Water we need your help.

This simply proves the issue isn't being addressed and Government who set the regulations and licensing of the Water Companies are weak in dealing with the lack of infrastructure and growth.

We the customer pay a standing charge and developers pay an infrastructure charge for each and every new property. So where has this money gone? It clearly hasn't been spent securing increased supplies and maintaining existing infrastructure. Yet the water companies continue to take our money for quite frankly nothing.

Lam let's get a date in the diary and as you seem to have the right mindset discuss how it needs a collective approach across all levels of Governance. Forget the other two MP's covering Maidstone they've had years of lack of appropriate action. Happy to involve others who are prepared to roll their sleeves up and get involved. If this gets no positive response then quite frankly look elsewhere when it comes to election time.

Rupert Lowe time for a chat on this one it's time to deal with this as the others don't truly represent those who elected them.

20/05/2026

Restore Britain are the vote.

Looking forward to campaigning with Rebecca tomorrow in Makerfield - dozens of members out today, and we are expecting 500 or so on Saturday. Restore Britain can win it.