Power cut hell

Apparently it's not considered newsworthy beyond the local press, but a whole block of the Morningside Estate in Hackney Wick/Homerton, i.e. prime Olympic boom territory, has been without electricity for SIX days and counting.  The supplier (French state-controlled London Olympic bid sponsor EDF Energy) blames a water leak (Thames Water: acquired for £8 billion by Macquarie Bank of Sydney, 2006).  You couldn't ask for a better display of how financialized infrastructure works: resource rundown by two fragments of the former utility system converges neatly to make life impossible for guess which class demographic (sitting on guess which real estate...)

Power cut hell

hg.editorial@archant.co.uk

01 May 2008DOZENS of families spent a sixth day using candles to light their homes and struggling without a mains electricity supply today after their power was cut off.

Residents of 25 flats in Hockley House on the Morningside estate in South Hackney have been without electricity since Saturday.

"We have no lighting, can't boil a kettle for tea, watch television or have a bath," said tenant Susan Smith, who lives in a two-bedroom flat on the top floor of the four-storey block

"Also all the perishable frozen food has gone off in our fridges and those with combi-heaters can't use their heating."

She says tenants were sent letters by their landlord, Sanctuary Hereward Housing Association, on Tuesday informing them that electricity company, EDF, had switched off the power after a water leak.

"The flyer they sent round said they were trying to get the power restored and hoped to have the problem resolved by Tuesday evening, but that came and went and we are still without electricity," she added on Wednesday.

Nyishia Martin-Allen, 22, who has a two-month-old daughter, said they were freezing.

"We haven't been offered any emergency heating or blankets," she said.

"The communal lights on the stairs and in the corridors are still on, so most of the tenants have been gathering there at night."

Nick Abbey, managing director of Sanctuary Hereward, apologised to residents and admitted it had been "an appalling state of affairs".

"We were given assurances and confidently thought supplies would be restored, but it sometimes happens because of weather conditions that it is not safe to switch the power back on," he said

"There seems to have been poor communication, but we are confident the electricity will be back on later today (Wednesday).

However, by Thursday afternoon the power was still off.

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