Why no compensation after our power cuts?
ASPECIAL needs teacher from County Durham who was left in a freezing-cold house due to Storm Arwen and Storm Malik is fighting to get compensation for residents.
Chloe Gillie, 39, who lives in Hamsterley, said she was left without power for more than 62 hours during Storm Arwen and more than 53 hours during Storm Malik. Residents were made aware that the power cuts needed to have lasted more than 48 hours for people to be entitled to any compensation.
In Storm Malik, despite Chloe’s power going off at 9.20am, Northern Powergrid incorrectly said that its records showed it went off at 7.13pm. Chloe said the mistake was acknowledged by Northern Powergrid and she was expecting to be sent some compensation – but she said she’s being refused any payments.
She said she was mainly concerned for her vulnerable and elderly neighbours who stayed put in their freezing homes. She said one neighbour was “putting his life a risk” by cooking on camping stoves during the power outage because he didn’t want to leave his home.
She is now fighting to get compensation for the time spent in the dark, saying Northern Powergrid has shown “no compassion and no consideration”.
Chloe said: “It was not too bad for me I’m younger but my next-door neighbour is 84 and he was putting his life at risk by cooking on a camping stove; the house could have burned down.
“Northern Powergrid said as a gesture of goodwill my neighbour would also be included in my claim and I said, ‘Oh that’s wonderful.’ But no cheque came and after 10 days, I spoke to someone else and they said my claim is pending.
“I emailed Northern Powergrid’s compensation team and I’ve been told I’m not due anything. I’ve been ringing them and I’m always told that someone will ring me back but nobody rings. I’ve just found that there is no compassion and consideration there at all.”
Chloe was unable to prepare for her lessons in her house during Storm Malik but was able to stay at a Travelodge, for which she was compensated. However, she feels like the residents on her street should be compensated for the time they were out of power.
She also said one of her neighbours received compensation in March and doesn’t understand why others haven’t also been compensated.
She said: “I have ADHD and suspected autism so trying to prepare for work was so stressful but I was more worried about my neighbour who didn’t want to leave his house. Our street has lots of elderly people and vulnerable people here.
“I know it was extreme weather conditions, but to think it’s acceptable to have almost six days with no electricity over three months in modern times is ridiculous.”
A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said: “Storm Arwen devastated parts of our network and caused significant damage and disruption for customers. Whilst we don’t comment publicly on individual cases, we want to reassure our customers that our teams are continuing to work through the detail needed to close the very small number of outstanding queries about Storm Arwen compensation payments still remaining.
“To ensure they get the right outcome for each and every customer, these cases do require our teams to work through a large amount of detail. This is to establish exactly what happened and ensure we treat all the customers affected by a particular incident consistently. They are cross-referencing our detailed engineering reports with individual customer information so we treat all customers fairly.
“Our network spans thousands of square miles, and not all areas are automated – in particular the more localised (low-voltage) parts of our network like the local substations in your street and power lines that feed homes and businesses. In situations like this, we need to confirm with customers what they experienced to ensure they are properly compensated. Where we receive information that clarifies our records, we are applying that to any customer affected, not just the people who informed us.
“The amount of compensation you are entitled to depends on the length of time you were without power compared with the length of time the regulations give us to restore it.”
To think it’s acceptable to have almost six days with no electricity over three months is ridiculous Chloe Gillie