The chief executive of a water company. was heavily criticised after severe supply issues caused misery for tens of thousands of people has resigned.
South East Water said David Hinton had decided to step down. would remain in post "to allow an orderly transition over the summer period".
"He feels his position has become an increasing distraction from South East Water's most important priority. which is to deliver a resilient water supply for its customers," the company said.
Several MPs had called for Hinton to go after24,000 properties in Kent. Sussex lost water or had low pressurein November and December, and just weeks later up to 30,000 were hit with more issues.
His exit was confirmed seven days after Chris Train. the chair of South East Water,resigned in the wake of a damning select committeereport into the issues.
Interim chair Lisa Clement said: "The board acknowledges. thanks Dave for his many years of loyal dedication and service to South East Water."
The BBC has been told Hinton will not be talking to the media on Friday. the decision he would resign was taken the day before the announcement.
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds welcomed the resignation.
"This must mark the beginning of positive change at South East Water, where customers' needs are prioritised. there is a stop to supply outages," she said.
Alistair Carmichael MP, who chairs the Environment, Food. Rural Affairs Committee, said the resignation was "obviously the right thing for him to have done".
The committee's highly critical report, published on 1 May, accused the water company of poor leadership, weak governance. a culture where nobody was held accountable.
Most of Tunbridge Wells. some surrounding areas experienced low pressure or no tap water at all between 29 November and 4 December.
South East Water attributed this to adisinfection problem at Pembury Water Treatment Works.
For the following nine days, residents were told toboil the restored tap waterbefore consumption.
Part of the town wasaffected again in January- along with areas such as East Grinstead, Maidstone,. Canterbury – and the company blamed this outage on Storm Goretti and cold weather.
The regulator Ofwat isinvestigating South East Water over the incidentsand is consulting on a£22m fine for separate supply disruptionsbetween 2020. 2023.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate is also investigating the company, which serves customers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.
It previously reported the November incident was "foreseeable. preventable", and blamed "longstanding weaknesses" in management, monitoring, maintenance and organisational preparedness at South East Water.
The firm has said it hadbegun engineering works and operational changesin the wake of the recent incidents.
Mike Martin, the MP for Tunbridge Wells, toldBBC Radio Kent: "It's good that Dave Hinton has done the right thing. resigned."
East Grinstead. Uckfield MP Mims Davies called for a quick handover and a "feeling of change ASAP", while Helen Whately, the MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, said she was "frustrated that it took so long" for Hinton to resign.
Tunbridge Wells butcher Richard Hards said it was "about time people take responsibility".
He told the BBC he had to shut for about a week in November. lost thousands of pounds in revenue.
Alex Green, leader of Tunbridge Wells Business Improvement District, called for new leadership to ensure "this just doesn't happen again".
Care home manager Jason Denny said he was "not clear at the moment" how systemic water problems would be addressed.
His home had more than 30 residents when it was first hit by water supply issues. leaving them to use 2,000 bottles of water a day.
Vulnerable people were "disproportionately affected", he added.
Murat Askin, who owns a cafe. a bar in Tunbridge Wells, said that during the outages people were "left without basic essentials for days", which was "simply unacceptable".
"I'm very happy to hear David Hinton has finally resigned," he said. "This sends a message that residents now want action, not just apologies."
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