Ewood Travellers fail in bid to get electricity metres - Lancashire

From the Citizen

A PETITION started by residents on Ewood’s Travellers site to get pre-payment electricity meters so they can buy their own electricity has failed.

They had asked Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive board to install the meters so they could top up their electricity credit when the site’s manager was not on duty by buying cards.

Currently the occupants on the transit site just off Albion Road must go to the town hall to settle bills when the manager is absent.

At the meeting of the executive board a motion was passed to provide additional payment methods to try to overcome the issue.

But its members agreed that provision of the pre pay meters was not possible as the energy company that supplies the site was unwilling to install them on the individual pitches.

It provides electricity to a central meter which is then transferred by the council to each caravan.

‘Key’ operated meters, as they are known, are usually only installed on sites with permanent dwellings.

The Government has issued non-enforceable guidelines stating that provision for pre-pay card meters be extended to transit sites.

As a compromise the council has proposed to bring in a system where the residents can pay their bills over the phone with a credit or debit card in addition to being able to pay in cash when the manager is available on site.

Officers have stated however that the plans may not prove popular with some of the residents, many of whom prefer to pay by cash.