"They’re talking £30 a day in compensation but you can't recover a lost Christmas"

Thursday, 31 December 2009

By Nick Griffin

HUNDREDS of beleaguered residents spent Christmas Day without gas more than a week after supplies failed during the recent spell of cold weather.

According to National Grid, at least 150 homes in the East Barnet area were left without heating or hot water over the festive period after a burst water main forced water into gas pipes on December 20.

Initially more than 1,000 properties were hit by the problems forcing residents to endure the freezing weather in the run-up to Christmas without any heating.

Hundreds of residents queued for up to an hour at an incident room at St Mary’s CofE Primary School in Little Grove to collect a fan heater and electric hob.

But hundreds of homes were then hit by power cuts after the grid buckled under the increased demand.

On the day before Christmas Eve engineers from EDF energy were still working to repair what it described as “extensive damage” to the underground electricity network.

Over Christmas time, Barnet Council also provided food to those most in need and laid on hot meals at its HQ in Southgate.

According to National Grid, families can expect to receive £30-a-day compensation pay out and further payment for disruption over Christmas.

Businesses will also each be assessed for loss of earnings.

But residents who spent Christmas without gas have this week criticised National Grid for failing to provide residents with up-to-date information.

Bernard Walsh, of Brookhill Road, only had his gas supply restored on Monday. He said: “It’s quite shambolic the way National Grid has behaved – there has been no communication whatsoever.

“People have had to rely on word of mouth to find things out, that’s been the worst thing from my point of view.

“It’s the elderly residents that that I feel most sorry for. They haven’t a clue what’s going on.

“There must be a lot of families who have had their Christmas ruined.

“They’re talking about £30 a day compensation but you can’t recover a lost Christmas.

“It’s been very cold – it was colder in the house than outside.”

Jill Jordan, of Longmore Avenue, was only able to cook her turkey dinner by using the kitchen at the café she owns.

She said: “We just had to do things differently, but you make do.

“A lot of houses didn’t even receive a letter telling them what was going on and no one visited us until Sunday.

“My aunt is 88 and she spent a lot of Christmas Day in bed because it was so cold. We were all there in our hats
and coats.”

A spokeswoman for National Grid said: “We’ve still got some water in the main which is moving around and needs to be pumped out.

“We are still reconnecting people but in some cases the pressure is dropping.

“We’ve been sending out updates and letters to the houses that we know are affected but it’s possible that some people have experienced problems with pressure later on and may not have received earlier information.

“We’ve done the best we can to keep people informed.”

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