VILLAGERS whose new hall looks set to be left in the dark this Christmas because an electricity firm failed to connect it have now won £2,500 from its sister company - for festive lights.

The people of Throckmorton, near Pershore, have been waiting since August for energy supplier Energy Services to install an electricity pole and cabling so their £175,000 village hall can be lit and heated.

Charles Tucker, member of the Throckmorton Village Charity, which raised funds for the new hall, said: "The charity has just built a new village hall but we cannot use it because we cannot get an electricity supply.

"Energy Services, an arm of Central Networks, came in August to disconnect the supply to the old hall. You would imagine connecting the new supply would all be done as one job, but we have been trying to get them to come along and put in a new supply since August.

"We still have no idea how long it is going to take for them to put it on. It is not a big job to put in a new pole and cables."

"The latest twist is that Bishampton and Throckmorton Parish Council entered a competition run by Central Networks and won £2,500 to be spent on providing Christmas lighting in the parish. The new village hall is one of the key locations where we wanted to use the lights but we have no electricity.

Mr Tucker added that every time anyone from the village contacted Energy Services to find out what was going on, their inquiry seemed to disappear into a black hole of bureaucracy.

He said: "We just cannot get anywhere with them. We have bookings for the hall in the next few weeks but we can't use it."

He said he had discovered that Energy Services is treating the new connection as a completely new job and it had only just committed itself to doing it. The installation might have to wait for two months.

The building, which replaces a 95-year-old scout hut, is a result of a four-year project. Money was raised through grants from Defra and Severn Waste Services, as well as local fund-raising.

A spokeswoman for Eon UK, the company which owns both Central Networks and Energy Services, said that they wanted to apologise for the delay, and had been on a site visit yesterday afternoon with members of the village hall committee to find the best way of taking the work forward.

"We are fully committed to getting the lights on and the electricity connected as soon as possible," she said.

"We are working with them to find a solution - we would like them to be able to use the money for their Christmas lights so we will do everything we can."

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