Elderly fear losing electricity to homes for eight hours

RESIDENTS of a residential park in Henley are worried about keeping warm when their electricity will be switched off for maintenance work.

More than 80 homes at Swiss Farm, in Marlow Road, will be without power today (Friday) from 8am to 4.30pm.

Contractors for Scottish and Southern Energy Services (SSEN), now owned by OVO Energy, are carrying out “essential” tree cutting work to safeguard its overhead network.

Residents were sent letters on Monday last week about the eight-and-a-half-hour outage and told to turn off their fridges, freezers and solar panels.

John Huntley, 92, and his wife, Wendy, 87, who live at Swiss Farm, are upset that they have not been supported.

Mr Huntley said: “You’ve got to be 50 years old before you can live here. There are one or two exceptions where there’s children. Quite a number of us are in our nineties.

“I think it’s disgusting that they don’t consider there’s about
80 homes here of elderly people, some of whom are ill. We don’t need the stress. Nobody up here needs the stress. There are one or two people who aren’t our age, but they’re all in their sixties, seventies but a lot of them are 90, getting to 100.

“I just think it’s awful that they can just do something like this without having any thought for the elderly community.”

The Huntleys rely on electricity for nearly everything in their home, including heating and hot water.

Mrs Huntley said: “We’d be off from heating or hot water from 8am to 4.30pm and it could be longer — we don’t know. We don’t usually get up at 8am, so our heating is not on during the night. We can’t afford it.

“A couple of hours, okay, you can cope with but you’ve not only got the heating, it’s cooking, the freezer, the fridge will go off the whole day.

“I think it’s intolerable that they should even think about doing it, let alone do it.” The Huntleys have said that they will not be provided with a generator, adding that it will be like “the Stone Age”.

Joan Walker has lived on the Swiss Farm residential estate with her husband, Trevor, since 1987.

She said: “There’s a lot of people on [the estate] who physically cannot get out. The majority of people here haven’t even got a car. What are they going to do for hours? They can’t even make a cup of tea. This is wrong, this is totally wrong.”

Neighbour Christine James, 87, and her daughter, Jacqueline Philpot are “worried”.

Jacqueline said: “Mum feels the cold and her not being able to put the heating on or not having access to cooking, it’s slightly worrying.”

Ms Philpot added her “frustration” at a generator not being provided. “It’s not very encouraging, really,” she said.

But Olwen Bruce, 80, said: “They’ve given us enough warning. They’ve told us what they’re doing and why.

“It’s very inconvenient, but my friend’s come in from the States, and we’re just going to go out all day.

“They’ve told us not to open the fridge and freezer, which we will comply with, and it should be okay.

“The trouble is, if it goes on for longer than they say it will, then I might be a bit cross.”

However, Ms Bruce also said she was “concerned” about other residents not knowing how to reset their boiler and similar equipment when the electricity is restored.

A spokeswoman for SSEN said: “The maintenance required across our network to keep it in the best possible condition for millions of customers means that work is required to be carried out all-year round when conditions permit.

“In the case of tree-cutting in the vicinity of the network, consent from the owners of trees is also required prior to progressing with the works; this can also affect schedules while it is secured.”

She added: “We thank customers affected by Friday’s planned maintenance for their patience and understanding while we carry out these essential works as safely and quickly as we can.”

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