Elderly residents in Jaywick faced a freezing Christmas after power failures left them without electricity over three consecutive days.

Network operators 24seven said it was faced with a catalogue of incidents over the weekend and admitted it was a difficult time for customers.

One of those, 95-year-old Charles Hatt of Gorse Way, said it was a miserable start to the holiday period.

"It was off for the best part of three days from Saturday through to Monday," he said.

"I just had a small oil stove to heat up some water and had to keep my overcoat and scarf on throughout."

There were also reports that a 92-year-old woman had to be taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

Angela Lawrence, spokeswoman for 24seven, said it had been a hectic time for the company and apologised to those who had been affected.

She said the loss of power had been due to three different faults, two of which were interconnected.

The problems began on Saturday morning with a fault at the Meadow Way sub-station and electricity was off for more than two hours affecting 40 homes. Later, another sub-station became overloaded and was down for five hours.

On Sunday, a cable on the network from Brooklands West in Riley Road burned out and the power was taken down to make repairs.

Then residents in Gorse Way, Sea Way and Sea Crescent were down for up to 12 hours and a generator was brought in to restore power. On Christmas Eve, the generator failed, leaving 20 customers without electricity for more than two hours.

Tendring councillor Roy Smith said he would be writing to the company for some answers.

Published Thursday December 27, 2001