A car wash boss who watches hopelessly as his customers climb over dirty puddles to get into their clean cars, is desperate for a water leak to be fixed.

Faton Gashi, from Teynham Hand Car Wash, has been trying to get a faulty water access cover fixed the last seven months and has even had to make a little dam to stop the water going near cleaned cars.

The leaking water access cover at Teynham Hand Car Wash. Video: Faton Gashi

The 39-year-old from Sittingbourne said: “I don’t know what to do, I always try to tidy up but I can’t stop it myself.

“The leak is causing my customers to complain, I’m not bothered about compensation or anything, I just want it to stop.

“I pay £10,000 a year for my water and although I’ve not lost customers because of the leak they do think the mess is from me.”

Access covers are removable lids placed over man-made openings and are usually found on pavements, footways, car parks and driveways.

They allow maintenance workers to gain quick, easy and safe access to concealed areas.

Faton, who has been running the business for the last 10 years, explained that the issues began during the last lockdown.

He said: “Castle Water, an independent business water supplier, billed me an extra £700 for my water bill.

"Obviously we were closed because of the pandemic so I questioned where this charge was coming from, it was after this that we discovered there was a faulty pipe and water was escaping from the access cover.

"They told me that this was a Southern Water issue, so I got in touch with the company, which is responsible for the public wastewater collection and treatment.

"They said they’d change my meter, but since then they’ve come here five times and it is just getting worse.

“I just want them to do something, this has been going on for almost a year, it is a joke now."

A spokesman for Southern Water said: “We have carried out work at this location twice during the past year.

“On both occasions, engineers have cleared blockages on private property, as a good will gesture.

“The main sewer was unaffected.

"The access cover is not ours. So we wouldn’t fix it even if we could. The access cover is marked ‘SEW’ – that is South East Water. So he needs to speak to them. That is theirs.

"Southern Water attended as we have responsibility for the nearby sewer but not for his issue."

South East Water’s Distribution Manager Adam Newbury said: “This has been a difficult issue due to the location of the leak.

“We are in touch with Mr Gashi and hope the problem will soon be resolved.

“We take all reports of leaks and bursts seriously and try to fix them as soon as possible. However, sometime this can take longer than we would like because of the complexity of our extensive underground network.”

Faton finished: “I just don’t know what is left for me to do. I’ve had to make a little dam to stop the water going near the clean cars.

“Customers have to drive their clean shiny cars through muddy puddles and it just isn’t right.

“The access cover isn’t even on my private land, it is on the path outside my business.”