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Power cut family wages war on electricity bosses
A Preston family has declared war on utilities bosses in a bid to get power problems sorted out.
The Maddock family, of The Ferns, Walton Park, near Preston, say they were plunged into darkness again after suffering two power cuts in one night.
They claim power at their home and scores of others on the street went off at around 7.15pm last Sunday and did not come back on until 9.30pm.
Minutes later they were hit by another short power cut.
It comes after the Evening Post revealed the Maddock family's anger with United Utilities last month. Mum Helen says they suffer regular power failures.
She has a letter from the company confirming five problems between December 2005 and the start of this year and is now urging other residents on the street to send formal letters of complaint.
She is also planning a petition in a bid to get the power cuts investigated.
But United Utilities say the failures are the result of unconnected faults.
Mum-of-two Mrs Maddock, 36, who works from home as a sales manager for BT, said: "It doesn't give me much hope for cooking Christmas dinner. It is really now at the point where you think 'This is absolutely ridiculous, I'm going to move'.
"I would like United Utilities to come and live here and experience it for a year. The kids can't even do their homework because the computer is going off. It is so debilitating."
A United Utilities spokesman said engineers will be going to the sub-station to try to find the physical cause of the "transient faults".
He said: "Once they have identified that, they can do a number of fixes which will guarantee the supply over the Christmas and New Year period.
They will then look at whether there is a need for a longer-term fix."
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Weather for Preston
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light sleet
Temperature: 2 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 0 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South east
