Vulnerable South Cheshire residents were unable to call for help during a three-day power cut because the area’s landlines have been switched to a digital service which requires electricity, a councillor said.
Cllr Janet Clowes said parts of her Wybunbury ward lost power for up to 72 hours during last week’s Storm Darragh.
And she told the full council: “Unfortunately our landline phones, we suddenly realised, had already been transferred by BT from the old analogue system to the new digital system via internet routers so, consequently, they were also useless during this period.”
She said, at the time, Cheshire East was putting out statements saying while Cheshire West and Chester had suffered power cuts “we are currently not aware of any requests for assistance from our residents”.
“The reason for that is that residents had no way of letting anybody know,” said Cllr Clowes.
“This raised some really deep concerns.
“Our rural hamlets were largely cut off during this period.
“Consequently, some of our older most vulnerable residents were at high risk of falls, of not being able to contact people, of hypothermia and all those other things that happen during difficult weather conditions.”
She called on the council to “alert and lobby government and BT to progress safety mitigation for those at risk – for example, funding for appropriate phone signal coverage in signal black spots and battery capacity”.
Cllr Mark Goldsmith (Wilmslow, Ind) said he had recently had an update meeting with BT because the area was switching to landlines over the internet.
“They did say that anyone who’s vulnerable and relies on the telephone service can have a battery pack update as well that will kick in if the power goes off as well,” he said.
“So those solutions are available, and I’m told that they will be made more widely available when the switchover happens, but obviously that hasn’t happened in your area.”
Cllr Jill Rhodes (Crewe, Lab) said the council has raised the issue nationally with the Local Government Association because of vulnerable residents who rely on their telecare service.
She added: “What Cllr Goldsmith said probably is a way forward.
“But if that is available, then the council needs to tell our residents it is available, because, as has been acknowledged, there will be other incidents, and we do need something to protect those vulnerable residents.”
(Story by Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter)
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