Angry families freeze in power cuts

Householders have blasted United Utilities after they shivered for almost 24 hours when a power cable was chopped.

Workmen demolishing an old substation on Hill Farm Close, Fitton Hill, hit the power line with a JCB, cutting off around 120 homes, on Friday afternoon.

The cable was repaired but the power went off again at 10.30pm, and despite repeated calls, it was not restored until 3pm Saturday. Temperatures dropped to minus 3°C overnight.

Cath Ball, wife of local Medlock Vale councillor Ged Ball, said: “Our 18-hours-old granddaughter Kayleigh came home from the Royal Oldham Hospital to our son David’s house around the corner.

In 24 hours we were off for 20 hours, and they were just fobbing us off. We were left in the icy dark.

“Had we known it was taking so long we would have made other arrangements.”

Councillor Ball, who had people knocking on his door, said: “The treatment we had from United Utilities was appalling. Residents’ complaints went unheard, and United Utilities led us to believe they were working on the problem overnight, however, when daylight came, no-one was there.”

A United Utilities’ spokesman said: “The damaged cable caused power loss to customers on Bankfield Drive, Tons Road, Deanhurst Road and Snipe Road.

“Engineers carried out a repair, unfortunately, a fault recurred at around 9.30pm, which resulted in further power loss.

“An engineer was able to make the cable safe, but the sheer volume of calls on Friday night meant that a full repair team could not be dispatched until around 1pm the following day.

“We regret that customers were left without power. It was an extremely busy night, with a high number of faults, and our teams were working flat out across the region.

“These were exceptional circumstances, and we’d like to apologise sincerely to those affected.”