Many of the residents at Cottage Park in Ross-on-Wye are facing large bills for replacing their electrical equipment after their supply network developed a fault on Christmas morning.

At about 3.30am on December 25th many of the residents were woken by a large bang, and some smelt burning. One lady told the Gazette that she smelt burning plastic and realised it was her clock radio by the bed melting. Another described a large hole which had been blasted in his fridge freezer. Many of the residents also had damaged boilers, TV and telephones and were without heating or television over Christmas.

The owner of the Park, Rennie Smith, and electricians from Western Power worked through the cold and dark to establish the fault and to get light restored.

Mr Smith said he was in the same position as those who lost possessions, he had also lost a lot of equipment and was in contact with his own insurance company.

Western Power told the Ross Gazette that they are there to help but are only responsible for the supply into the park, not to the individual properties.

The residents keen to find out if the electricity supply had been regularly serviced and maintained, Rennie told the Ross Gazette that he has all the service records which anyone can see. He added that it is now up to each of the residents to pursue a claim with their own insurance company.