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EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS (DISPUTE RESOLUTION) BILL [LORDS] [MONEY]
Queen's recommendation having been signified--
Resolved,
That, for the purposes of any Act resulting from the Employment Rights (Dispute Resolution) Bill [Lords], it is expedient to authorise the payment out of money provided by Parliament of any increase attributable to the Act in the sums payable out of money so provided under any other enactment.--[Mr. Betts.]
21 Jan 1998 : Column 1117
North Wales (Power Cuts)
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Betts.]
10.16 pm
Mr. Dafydd Wigley (Caernarfon): I am grateful for such an early opportunity to draw attention to the problems that we experienced with electricity supply in northern and central Wales during the Christmas period. I realise that, at various times over the past weeks, many areas in the United Kingdom have suffered electricity cuts owing to extreme bad weather, but I think it appropriate to highlight the difficulties in northern and central Wales--served by MANWEB--for three reasons.
First, the storms that hit Wales over Christmas were more severe than those in many other areas and caused thousands of homes to be without electricity on Christmas day. Secondly, it took an unacceptably long time to reconnect supplies: hundreds of people had no electricity for several days, and some had none for as long as eight days. Thirdly, although this was not the first time our area had suffered in this way, the privatised electricity industry has imposed on us substantial cuts in the work force and we now face further centralisation and the closure of depots.
I must make it clear at once that I do not criticise the workers of MANWEB. Many of them worked heroically in appalling weather conditions for up to 18 hours a day, and many office staff gave up their Christmas to deal with telephone calls. I pay tribute to all those people, but, despite their efforts, the experience of my constituents was unacceptable. Lessons must be learnt and changes must be made.
I shall give some examples of the difficulties that have been experienced. The storm, with gusts of up to 100 mph, broke out late in the afternoon of Christmas eve. Incidentally, MANWEB states that the Meteorological Office gave it no advance warning. That raises other questions about the way in which the Met Office warning system works--with which we could, perhaps, deal on another occasion.
Thousands of homes in northern and central Wales lost their electricity supply. By midnight on Christmas eve, I was receiving frustrated telephone calls from constituents. I entirely understand why they felt as they did. The frustration came partly from the threat to their Christmas lunch, but equally, if not more so, from the difficulty that they were experiencing trying to make contact with MANWEB. MANWEB says that there were also difficulties with BT. If that is the case, some action needs to be taken on that matter.
The weather remained difficult. On Christmas day and Boxing day there were still strong winds, but they were not hurricane force and luckily it was not all that cold for the time of year; otherwise, the problems would have been much more serious. By Boxing day morning, people's electricity had been off for 36 hours and they were getting very annoyed indeed.
People could not get through to MANWEB and those who persevered for 35 or 40 minutes got only a recorded message. Some who held on beyond the end of the message had another long wait; sometimes they spoke to someone who knew little about the place names and locations in north Wales. That is not surprising, because many of the calls were diverted to Warrington.
As the week progressed, the complaints from households, farms and even residential old people's homes mounted. People had been without electricity for four or five days. By the time the full pattern became visible, we discovered that people had been without electricity for up to eight days. The Nierada family in Nefyn, for instance, had that experience, and they had an extremely sad bereavement in the middle of the week.
Whatever understandable difficulties MANWEB faced on Christmas day and Boxing day, there was no excuse for people being cut off for five days or longer or for the failure to provide information over the telephone. MANWEB even refused, I regret to say, to put spokespersons on BBC radio programmes to inform the public about the situation.
Police and other emergency services and local government also had difficulty establishing proper communications with MANWEB. The long loss of electricity supply led to substantial financial losses for many people as well as widespread misery over the festive period. Some, indeed, had their very survival threatened. One of my constituents, in Llanberis, had come out of hospital in Bangor only shortly before Christmas and was on an electrically powered life support machine. Her husband had an emergency MANWEB telephone number in case anything went wrong, but the person at the other end did not know how to respond or to help. My constituent survived by luck, because the electricity kept coming back for short periods and that was enough to keep the machinery going.
Mrs. Betty Williams (Conwy):
Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the major problem during the crisis, in north-west Wales especially, was communication? He has mentioned some examples. Surely we must consider the question of bilingualism. People in our area were asked to spell out place names and even then the people on the other end got them wrong.
Mr. Wigley:
Indeed. It is understandable that people on the other end did not understand the place names, as the calls were diverted to Warrington. That is a result of over-centralisation. When calls were dealt with locally, the problem did not arise. I know that people in Bethesda, in the hon. Lady's constituency, were also cut off for long periods.
A residential home with vulnerable old people, in Morfa Nefyn my constituency, was without electricity for three days, as was a nursing home in St. Asaph, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (Mr. Ruane), with people of an average age of more than 90, several of whom are terminally ill and some of whom are dependent on electrical apparatus to survive. The staff there telephoned MANWEB and were unable to get the help that they needed. It was lucky that they were able to acquire a generator, as some people might otherwise have died.
Mr. Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley)
rose--
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst):
Order. The hon. Gentleman must resume his seat. If he is seeking to intervene in the debate, he must get up and say so. Two hon. Members must not be standing at the same time.
Mr. Hoyle:
I am sorry that I was so polite and I apologise, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The right
Mr. Wigley:
I accept that there were problems in other areas, including the Norweb area. The issue goes to the heart of the organisation of the electricity industry and some of the trends that we have seen since privatisation. The hon. Gentleman's reference to homes for the elderly underlines the question about what guidelines are issued to the electricity companies to ensure that they have procedures to deal with circumstances that may be a matter of life or death.
I have been inundated with letters on this issue. That fact reflects the feelings of my constituents. If the weather had been extremely cold, there would have been dozens of deaths. Thousands of families in Wales lost the entire contents of their deep freezes and much of their Christmas food, which they were not able to cook. Some have insurance policies, but they stand to lose the excess charge on those policies and now face increased insurance premiums. Some have no insurance cover.
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