St Jude’s Day

We all knew the wind was coming: we all knew the power would fail.  What we did not know, was how long it would take to fix the power.  Sure enough, the wind arrived on time at 8.00 a.m. and the power went off at about 8.05.  The storm was comparatively short lived – only about half an hour.  The scale of the damage was modest compared with the hurricane of 1987.  Most of the roads were cleared of fallen trees within a couple of hours.  But where we were, the power stayed off for 56 hours.

We were lucky: we had a big log burner, an old fashioned corded phone and a propane gas hob.  We kept our freezers shut and were surprised that our frozen food survived unscathed.  With a large tank we managed to last 36 hours before we ran out of hot water.

However, there are some things that you don’t think about when the power goes down.  Power was cut to telecoms masts, so our mobiles did not work.  But perhaps the most irritating thing was the various alarms that warn that back up batteries are not charging.  We got the alarm company to fix the burglar alarm at 5.30 a.m.  But we could not find any answer to the irritating beeps from the smoke alarms or from the cordless phones (other than consigning them to the garage).  The beeps are designed to be so irritating that you have to get the kit fixed.  As such, they are virtually impossible to sleep through.

Our demeanour was not helped by a series of calls at 3.00 in the morning (which stopped just before we got to the phone) to advise us that our friends’ alarm had gone off. 

It was impossible to get any idea of when the power would go back on, as UK Power Networks’ switchboard was permanently jammed.

So by the time the power eventually came back on we were very grateful, but totally frazzled.

I have just read that UK Power Networks will pay us the princely sum of £54 – twice the statutory compensation - as a gesture of goodwill.  Great: it will not even cover the alarm call-out charge.

We probably get between ten and twenty power cuts a year.  Most are very brief and merely irritating, as we have to reset all our clocks.

The problem is we are in a rural area at the end of a long run of overhead cables, which are vulnerable to damage from falling trees.  The supply could be made more resilient by undergrounding the cables.  But this is expensive and the (private) monopoly grid supplier finds it cheaper to fork out to remedy the chaos that occurs when we get a storm, than providing a proper permanent solution.  Resilience of power supply is not even on the regulator’s radar.  It should be. 

It is ironic that we are within five miles of a nuclear power station and face the prospect of major disruption and blight while EDF builds another, but we do not have a reliable electricity supply.  Perhaps the cost of fixing the problem should be part of the price that the operator pays for Sizewell C?

But I don’t see anyone doing anything about our problem fast.  So I am going to buy a generator.  It won’t power everything: but it will keep our oil-fired heating and hot water going; stop our freezers defrosting; keep our phones and computers on line; and above all get rid of all those damn beeps!

How not to consult

Yesterday an anonymous white envelope arrived in the post along with an one from for Zenith double glazing.  It said “important information” but so does everything else from stair lifts to life insurance advertising.  For some unknown reason, I opened the thing to find a booklet entitled “Have your say on new Sizewell emergency arrangements.”

The document puts forward five proposals including an extension of the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone (DEPZ) to 4 km and the establishment of a new Precautionary Emergency Planning Zone of 15 km.  

The booklet comes from Suffolk Resilience Forum - a multi-agency partnership “which provides guidance and support in the case of a major incident affecting the county”. The forum includes emergency services, health, county, district and borough councils.

We are invited to say whether we agree/ disagree or are neutral on each proposal.  (What does neutral mean - don't care, don't know?)  But we are not asked whether we disagree because we think the proposals go too far - or do not go far enough.  So the answers are going to be fairly meaningless.  There is a small "sweep up" box for additional comments, but this is hardly going to prompt informative answers from the majority of consultees. 

Amongst other things we are asked whether more use should be made of self-evacuation.  More use than what?  The extant plan is almost secret.  Last year, I stumbled upon it on the website under “Draft Residents Calendar - 24 May 2012"

The last question is a nonsense.  It asks if there should be a plan for the evacuation of schools etc within the precautionary zone "if down wind of any release." Surely the plans should be in place come what may?

The booklet has only been sent to people within the Precautionary Zone - so anyone outside it will not have the opportunity to say that they should be included in an extended zone.

The document itself is not easy to read - white print on pale lilac paper - a triumph of style over substance for the marketing people.

If the forum is sincere about securing people’s opinions it should have addressed the booklet in person to residents - and not just delivered lumped in with a load of junk mail.

All of my complaints are about elementary mistakes.  Although the presentation of the booklet is pretty professional, the contents, the format and the manner of distribution are amateurish in the extreme.

We are told, “Your thoughts and views are critically important and we hope that you will take this opportunity to get involved and shape the way we manage the risk of radiation emergencies at Sizewell.”

I cannot help thinking that the exact opposite is true.  “We want to be allowed to get on with our jobs with as few responses as possible from interfering members of the public.  We know best.  No emergency will ever happen.  Thank you and goodnight.”