THE mother of a man with learning difficulties who was left without electricity for 15 hours while her son was recovering from major surgery at home has said she is still waiting for an apology four days later.

Isla Hewitt, 57, said she and son Gary, 27, were kept in the dark by council bosses following the power cut at their home in Atkyns Court, Wood Farm, at about 3pm on Tuesday.

The outage also affected other residents in the sheltered housing block as reported in Friday’s Oxford Mail.

Power was not restored until 6am the next day and council tenant Ms Hewitt said the council did not tell them what was happening or offer any support.

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She said: “My son had just come out of hospital after having major surgery and he rang me at work just after 3pm to say the electricity had gone off.

“We were just left, we did not know what was happening and I had no cooker and no way to make hot drinks.

“I think someone from the council should have come around. I would still like an apology from the council for what we have been through.”

On Thursday, Oxford City Council spokesman Chofamba Sithole admitted the council should have responded better to the power cut.

He said: “We perhaps should have checked more with Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) to see how repairs were going. We intend to discuss with SSE how future incidents can be managed better.”


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