• Listen Live
  • Advertise on TKO
  • Contact TKO
  • Login
TKO Radio
Now on TKO
  • The Music of Your Life, Non-Stop
Next on TKO
  • Weekend Wakeup
    with Trev Massey
    Saturday, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
    [ - ]
  • LISTEN
    • LISTEN LIVE
    • Listen Again TKO On Demand
    • TKO Extra
    • How to listen
  • On Air
    • Schedule
    • Mystery Voice
  • Local Information
    • Local News
    • Local Weather
    • Whats On Guide
    • Local Live Traffic Conditions
    • Airport Arrivals & Departures
  • News
    • All
    • Local News
    • Spanish National News
    • Sports News
    • UK News
    England beaten by South Africa in first ODI despite blistering Jason Roy century

    England beaten by South Africa in first ODI despite blistering Jason Roy century

    Dizzee Rascal loses appeal against conviction for assaulting ex fiancee

    Dizzee Rascal loses appeal against conviction for assaulting ex fiancee

    Dress worn by Diana sells for nearly 500000 at auction

    Dress worn by Diana sells for nearly 500000 at auction

    Asking rents hit record highs in final months of 2022

    Asking rents hit record highs in final months of 2022

    Sabri Lamouchi appointed as Cardiff manager

    Sabri Lamouchi appointed as Cardiff manager

    Firefighter Barry Martin dies after Jenners blaze

    Firefighter Barry Martin dies after Jenners blaze

    • Local News
    • Spanish National News
    • UK News
  • Games
  • Contact TKO
No Result
View All Result
  • LISTEN
    • LISTEN LIVE
    • Listen Again TKO On Demand
    • TKO Extra
    • How to listen
  • On Air
    • Schedule
    • Mystery Voice
  • Local Information
    • Local News
    • Local Weather
    • Whats On Guide
    • Local Live Traffic Conditions
    • Airport Arrivals & Departures
  • News
    • All
    • Local News
    • Spanish National News
    • Sports News
    • UK News
    England beaten by South Africa in first ODI despite blistering Jason Roy century

    England beaten by South Africa in first ODI despite blistering Jason Roy century

    Dizzee Rascal loses appeal against conviction for assaulting ex fiancee

    Dizzee Rascal loses appeal against conviction for assaulting ex fiancee

    Dress worn by Diana sells for nearly 500000 at auction

    Dress worn by Diana sells for nearly 500000 at auction

    Asking rents hit record highs in final months of 2022

    Asking rents hit record highs in final months of 2022

    Sabri Lamouchi appointed as Cardiff manager

    Sabri Lamouchi appointed as Cardiff manager

    Firefighter Barry Martin dies after Jenners blaze

    Firefighter Barry Martin dies after Jenners blaze

    • Local News
    • Spanish National News
    • UK News
  • Games
  • Contact TKO
No Result
View All Result
TKO Radio
No Result
View All Result
Home News UK News

Storm response shows rural areas do not matter to energy providers resident

TKO News by TKO News
9 June 2022
in UK News
0
Storm response shows rural areas do not matter to energy providers resident

Storm response shows rural areas do not matter to energy providers – resident

Rural communities “don’t matter” to energy providers, according to a resident who was left without power for 11 days after Storm Arwen.

An Ofgem review has found some customers received “unacceptable service” from energy providers after the storm, findings which Stewart Sexton, from Alnwick in Northumberland, said are “not surprising at all”.

The 58-year-old and his partner Jane were left without power and hot water after a telegraph pole in their village snapped on November 26, 2021.

Amid freezing temperatures, the couple had only candles for light and a wood-burning stove to keep them warm and to heat pans of water – a process which took 50 minutes each morning.

Mr Sexton said he called his provider Northern Powergrid “most days” and was repeatedly told his power would be restored “by midnight” that evening or “by tomorrow morning”.

He told the PA news agency: “I’m not surprised by (the Ofgem review) at all – what it says in the findings are pretty much what we said last year.

“(The 11 days without power) was bad enough and completely unacceptable, but also their idea of giving you information of what was happening, keeping you informed, was way off the mark.

“If somebody had said to you, ‘it’s a disaster your power’s going to be off for a week, people may well have then gone out and bought generators.

“By 3.30pm it was too dark inside the house to see, so it was just 16 hours of pitch darkness with no heating in winter, without any contact and just false information from the provider on a daily basis.

“It was absolutely, totally unacceptable.

“It’s disgraceful how we are treated… people like us in rural communities certainly don’t matter (to energy providers), they can fob us off with some compensation quite easily.”

Ofgem’s review found some customers were slow to receive compensation payments, but Mr Sexton said this was the “only part they did right”.

He received statutory payments and money for additional items as part of his compensation, the first cheque for which he received two to three weeks after contacting the complaints system.

However, Mr Sexton said the money “did not compensate” for his experience and the communication from Northern Powergrid.

“No amount of compensation – they could have it all back if (the poor communication) was done away with – compensation didn’t compensate for that,” he said.

Mr Sexton said he and his partner were “lucky” as there are only two of them and they are working adults – adding that things could have been much worse for families with young children and the elderly.

“It was still a nightmare for us, but if you’re an older, more vulnerable person, it doesn’t really bear thinking about,” he said.

Mr Sexton said electricity outages in Alnwick happen several times each year and on top of Storm Arwen he also lost power for 35 hours during Storm Malik in January.

Mr Sexton said he hopes “genuine inroads” are being made to improve services as a result of the Ofgem review, but he also pointed to the fact that energy prices have gone “through the roof” in recent months.

“They’re taking our money and then just have no thought for us at all when there’s an issue like that,” he said.

“I would just like to think that there were genuine inroads made into the care of the people that they provide the electricity for and they consider how much cost members of the public pay that company.

“It’s us that has to pay their wages, pays for their time, and to be treated with contempt is unacceptable.”

Cameron Greer, 17, a student from Claygate in Scotland, said he and his mother were without power for around four days forcing him to shower and obtain hot food at school.

“We had no electricity, which didn’t surprise me at all. It was a massive issue as we didn’t have hot water, we couldn’t cook anything and our fridge and freezer wasn’t keeping anything cold,” he told PA.

“The towns that surround us (Canonbie and Langholm) both got power back that day, but my village was without power for about three to four days.

“I wasn’t supposed to be at school that week, but I went anyway so I could get a shower and hot food. I was lucky as some people outside of the village were trapped by trees and couldn’t be taken to school.”

Mr Greer, who runs Lib Dems Friends of Eastern Europe “to advocate for democracy in Russia, Belarus etc” described the situation as “infuriating” adding “it’s like we live in a Bermuda Triangle of infrastructure.”

He said he believed Scottish Power did all they could, suggesting “systemic infrastructure reform” was needed instead.

“I can’t see how Scottish Power could have done any more without systematic infrastructure reform of the South of Scotland by councils and Scottish Government,” he said.

Published: 09/06/2022 by Radio NewsHub Source : Radio News Hub

Now Playing on TKO Radio
Now Playing
[nowplaying_singleline station=”gold”]

Local Weather

TORREVIEJA WEATHER

Local Traffic

Currency Exchange Rates

Сurrency converter by mconvert.net

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020

Categories

  • EuroMillions
  • La Primitiva
  • Local News
  • Music
  • Mystery Voice
  • News
  • On Air
  • Spanish National News
  • Sports News
  • TKO Internal
  • UK News
  • Uncategorized
  • Win

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Categories

  • EuroMillions
  • La Primitiva
  • Local News
  • Music
  • Mystery Voice
  • News
  • On Air
  • Spanish National News
  • Sports News
  • TKO Internal
  • UK News
  • Uncategorized
  • Win

Recent Posts

  • England beaten by South Africa in first ODI despite blistering Jason Roy century
  • Dizzee Rascal loses appeal against conviction for assaulting ex fiancee
  • Dress worn by Diana sells for nearly 500000 at auction
  • Asking rents hit record highs in final months of 2022
  • Listen Live
  • What’s On Guide
  • News
  • Advertise on TKO

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • LISTEN
    • LISTEN LIVE
    • Listen Again TKO On Demand
    • TKO Extra
    • How to listen
  • On Air
    • Schedule
    • Mystery Voice
  • Local Information
    • Local News
    • Local Weather
    • Whats On Guide
    • Local Live Traffic Conditions
    • Airport Arrivals & Departures
  • News
    • Local News
    • Spanish National News
    • UK News
  • Games
  • Contact TKO

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Contact to Listing Owner

Captcha Code