Residents have been left in "sheer disbelief" after they were "plunged into the cold once again" after council-owned energy company SDEN suffered another fail with its network in Hackbridge.

Residents of New Mill Quarter were hit with another heating outage, which saw the fire brigade attend to a mechanical failure that caused heat supplies to fail on January 19.

It comes after hundreds of families were left without heating and hot water as they waited for engineers to attend the site on Friday. 

Chair of New Mill Quarter Sheldon Vestey says this is the thirteenth time that residents have gone without heating in the past 12-months. 

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He said: "Residents were left heating their properties with their ovens and sending frantic emails concerned about the wellbeing of children, vulnerable and pregnant residents.

"Over 400 families were rendered without heating and hot water, this time in the depth of winter as outside temperatures plummeted to below zero."

He added: "SDEN routinely blames the house builder, Barratt, for issues with their heating system but residents have a contract in place with SDEN. 

We have raised concerns over reliability and pricing for well over a year now and these problems with SDEN and Sutton Council are impacting an otherwise great place to live and a fantastic community."

Responding to a request for comment from Sutton Guardian, a spokesperson for Barratt London did not comment directly on the number of incidents that has occurred over the past 12-months but apologised for the most recent two.

“We apologise to all residents at New Mill Quarter for the loss of heating and hot water on Friday. 

"This was caused by a cable being struck on-site due to building works. As soon as it happened we brought in engineers who were able to fix it that evening.

“There was a further small outage this morning with the heat network. This was not connected to the issue on Friday and has now been fixed.”

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Council authorities confirmed that they have since requested an "urgent meeting" with site developer Barratt London.

A spokesperson for Sutton Council said: "The London Fire Brigade were called out this morning ( January 19) due to vapour emissions from the Block P electricity substation. 

"Power was restored to homes in the morning, but any resident still experiencing issues with their heat supply should please contact SDEN.

"Council leaders will be demanding action on the ongoing problems being experienced by residents at New Mill Quarter due to works by Barratts, and stressing that the situation is unacceptable to the Council."