HOMEOWNERS living on a new build estate who say they are regularly without power claim noisy generators mean it’s like living on an airport runway.
Alleged regular outages at Brooksfields housing estate in Iwade, Sittingbourne, have left residents fuming.
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They say they’ve been forced to live without regular electricity for six months, with temporary generators creating noise and fumes.
Tory councillor Roger Clark, 79, told Kent Online it was like they were living “in the dark ages”.
He said: “We never know when the outages are going to come, and when they do happen it causes such a problem with all your household appliances where you worry about getting an electric shock.
“We then get a massive generator arrive which is loud and forces us to close our windows because of the noise and extraordinary diesel fumes.
“We also have to wait for them to come from Portsmouth to put the diesel in when the generator runs out, so it’s just purgatory as it can be here for months at a time.”
Mr Clark sleeps in his back bedroom to try to get away from the noise but “it doesn’t help because the generator is the size of a lorry”.
Neighbour Richard Leicester said the problems were caused by the rapid expansion of nearby housing developments.
He claimed electricity surges caused by the generators blew household appliances including laptop chargers, pond pumps and mobile phone adapters.
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“It’s led to hundreds of pounds worth of damage,” he added.
The 140-home estate was built by Persimmon Homes in 2014.
More homes were added in 2017 and a new development of more than 60 houses is due to be finished by autumn at nearby Grovehurst Road.
Electricity in the South East, London and the east of England, is controlled by UK Power Networks.
It owns and maintain cables and lines for eight million customers across 30,000 square kilometres.
A spokesperson for Persimmon Homes said: “This is an issue for UK Power Networks (UKPN) and nothing to do with Persimmon.
“We understand UKPN had a problem with their mains a while ago and are having to carry out various repairs to their network in the area which is why the temporary generators are there.
“Ultimately, it is for UKPN to comment as it is their issue.”
UKPN said the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) were ultimately responsible.
Swale Borough Council declined to comment.
The Sun Online has contacted SSEN for comment.
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