And the County Councillor has just told us it wil be at least Monday before we have any power and the CC are, "...thinking of declaring a major incident and calling in the military."

... Mr BW has just pulled up the incident map... we are finally listed on it, but it now says restoration of supply next Wednesday, 8th, at 10pm. At lunchtime it said by 10pm tonight.

The most rural, most isolated properties, have absolutely nothing. No access to services, no support, nowhere to go, no community halls to hand out hot meals, no nothing.

Many people also have no water (no borehole pumps - so no water for animals on farms), no sewerage (no electric to process for septic tanks) and no phones/internet either as all EE masts in the area are down. Luckily we are on Giff Gaff/O2...

I'm speechless.
"Beyond angry" has to be a huge understatement.

If only you could go stay at a hotel and make your electric company pay for it until Coven Nord has power restored. That would inspire them to work faster

Kippy - oh they have already offered that - but Covid risks in hotels in Newcastle are too great.

And what about our livestock? We have an insecure house due to uncompleted building works and are not allowed to leave it unattended. If we do we have no insurance for anything at all (even storm flood or fire) and there is huge risk of burglary as the powergrid company have a map of exactly which areas are without power, so the thieves know exactly which isolated houses might be empty and without power so without their usual security precautions.

We might have 2 generators now, but petrol generators have to run outdoors, and can only power things that can be plugged into them. Therefore need a window open for extension leads. It's minus degrees outside. More cold goes out than one small oil-filled radiator can produce.

Apparently the Chief Fire Officer for this area is going to visit us today. Unknown reason why, except, I suppose, they need to be seen to be doing something, however futile.

If he sees it, he will probably confiscate our petrol stash as it is way more than you are legally allowed to have on domestic property, but it is a 26 mile journey to the nearest petrol station to get any more... and we are chewing though 2-3 litres per hour.

BW, I know that you are incredibly well-informed about stuff and am fearful of appearing to teach you how to suck eggs - but according to HSE site you can have up to 275 litres of petrol at your home as long as you:

Notify your local Petroleum Enforcement Authority in writing, giving your name and address as the occupier of the storage place or the address where the petrol is stored. This is not a new requirement but carries forward long standing requirements of the previous legislation.
You can store it in:
suitable portable metal or plastic containers
demountable fuel tanks
a combination of the above as long as no more than 275 litres is kept.

I really hope you get sorted soon.

Thanks Sue, I didn't know that.

My info about only being allowed 20 litres of petrol or diesel on a domestic property came from a beekeeper down south who was in charge of a major London Fire Station before he retired. "Think of the poor buggers in The Brigade who will be fighting your fire when your nice little fuel stash explodes in their faces!" he said. I think he'd lost a colleague in such a situation.

So, who is my local Petroleum Enforcement Authority, and can I get a letter to him? I know, "I sent you a letter - haven't you received it? Oh dear, it must be Covid/Brexit/Sspply chain/delivery driver/postal worker problems!" Officialdom keep using that excuse to me, so I shall to them...

Just checked - it's actually 30 litres of petrol that you can keep in domestic premises, but not in living accommodation, now. But, you can only carry 2 cans from a petrol station in your car.

Given that we have only 10 litre and 5 litre petrol cans... no, I'm not even going to go there. I shall continue to pretend I dont know that, and cross my fingers and toes.

BW, are we looking at the same page? there's storage requirements, but it definitely says up to 275 litres at home, albeit not IN the living accommodation.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/petrol-storage-club-association.htm

(some of this may be a duplicate as I got an error message before)

HSE page definitely allows up to 275, just not in the living accommodation - https://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/petrol-storage-club-association.htm

I know cars now have anti-siphon thingies, but could you drive to garage, fill up, and then siphon out the petrol to store at home in containers?

Yes same page Sue. Thank you so much for your help and thoughts. Please don't think I am ungrateful... and you have made me look up the Regs so I can bullshit better if needed!!!

But, until one has notified and has the certificate, one cannot legally store more than 30 litres - and, safety aspects aside, undoubtedly if one did and there was an explosion there would be no insurance cover.

Our car is diesel... the cleanest diesel there was when we bought it, so it actually pays no road tax, but diesel nonetheless. Diesel generators are prohibitively expensive, and not common...

Yeah, I know, no easy answers, and believe me we are using every single ounce of everything we have to try to do something. It is lovely that you - and others - are trying so hard to help and sending supportive messages. They help.

The CC bosses are still refusing to declare an emergency so no national resource/army can be called in. Most of them seem to be out on a shoot happening in the local woods today...

No decision today = no decision before Monday afternoon earliest. Because they don't work weekends, even in a crisis.

BW
Oh yes - of course, the first thing the insurance company would be after would be a permit. Boo, hiss!

Sending evil thoughts to all those on CC and the electric company in solidarity with you.

S

All the options we thought you might have, you have addressed them above and in your post. Hoping power will be back nearer to tonight than next bleedin' Wednesday.