A VILLAGE in County Durham has proved that community spirit is the best policy for overcoming power outages after residents, councillors and Northern Powergrid all joined together to restore electricity to over 100 homes on Monday.
Finchale Abbey village, which is home to over 100 properties, lost power during Storm Malik on Saturday (January 29), and, initially, it was thought power would be back on the same day.
However, three separate parts of the network needed repairing and it became difficult to know when the site would get electricity back.
Read more: Angry residents hit out at Northern Powergrid after further power outages in the region
After battling the elements for over 48 hours, with many retired residents being classed as vulnerable, the power was restored this afternoon, with only a handful of houses still waiting for the power to be reconnected.
Cllr Mark Wilkes, who represents the Framwellgate and Newton Hall, areas of County Durham, was at the scene of the power shortage and helped residents in need.
He said: “It became clear more was needed to be done, as Northern Powergrid had a bigger job on their hands.
"Thankfully, Powergrid were able to get a van on-site to provide hot water, phone charging and assistance packs, with help from our neighbourhood wardens too.
"Having knocked on doors from 8am this morning, helping those who needed it we were able to provide additional support to the most vulnerable."
"By early afternoon, we were also able to get a food van on-site which many residents were really happy with.
"We took food to the most vulnerable residents who were stuck in their homes."
"The guys from Powergrid have been fantastic and all credit to the teams out in the fields doing work to reconnect the site and other properties in the area."
The news of the community spirit comes after Northern Powergrid announced that 1,800 properties are still without power in the aftermath of the storms that hit the region over the weekend.
Louise Lowes, head of customer service at Northern Powergrid, said: “We feel we have been able to do a better job for our customers by communicating differently in this storm response.
"We recognise that it is frustrating not to be given an exact estimate of when the lights will come back on, but in these circumstances the reality is that we are unable to be as precise as we would be under normal circumstances.
"As we near the end of this event, our focus remains solely on getting the lights back on for the customers who have waited the longest and supporting them as much as we can. Our attention will turn to the compensation process once we have reconnected all customers.”
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