Fife community feels 'abandoned' during Storm Eowyn

Park home residents in Fife have complained they were "abandoned" during Storm Eowyn after a contractual quirk meant an energy firm treated them like a business.

Fordell Gardens in Dunfermline was among the many areas left without power after the storm hit on Friday, and it only regained electricity on Sunday night.

However, people living at the park homes - the majority of whom are elderly - discovered they did not qualify for emergency aid from energy transmission firm SP Energy Networks (SPEN) because they are on a commercial contract.

SPEN said it was the responsibility of the site's owner Tom Swarbrick to maintain the network, but he has told BBC News he found it impossible to contact the energy firm for guidance.

Park homes are alternatives to traditional properties, offering prefabricated or lodge style accommodation within a residential park, and are popular with retirees.

But after the storm, residents of Fordell Gardens found themselves having to spend money on alternative accommodation, source generators or in some cases sit in their cars to stay warm

BBC Scotland News understands a number of park homes and care homes operate on similar lines, with the energy operator registering a central business owner rather than individual home owners for the properties.

SPEN offered emergency aid to home owners affected by the storm, which saw over 100,000 customers lose power.

However Fordell Gardens residents did not qualify for the aid, which included hotel stays at SPEN's expense and compensation for food lost during the outages.

Among those affected was Michael Sherman, 80, who has lived at the site for around two decades.

He said he spent Friday night staying in the bedroom trying to keep warm and that at one stage he "went and sat in the car to try and get a heat."

Mr Sherman, who is also disabled, eventually booked a hotel on Sunday to stay in using his own money.

He added: "I just thought, 'I can't go on with this' and got the hotel sorted. But I'm lucky enough to be able to afford that at short notice - there's people living there that couldn't do that, or didn't have family to stay with. They just had to get by when it was freezing."

One of those who stayed was Heather McLean, who lives there with her husband Nick.

She said: "Everyone was keeping an eye on the neighbours and trying to do our best, but we don't have generators lying around.

"Getting them was nigh on impossible, and as they thought we were a commercial business there wasn't a fix out for us.

"We had no contact with anyone – it was like 60 homes were abandoned."

She estimated around 90% of people living at the site were over 70.

Mr Swarbrick, who has owned the site for around 40 years, told BBC Scotland News that his main concern was the fact he was unable to reach SPEN despite spending several hours trying to contact them on Friday and Saturday.

This meant he was unable to explain to the company that the site had around 60 homes on it in need of assistance.

Fife councillor David Barratt visited the site on Sunday to check in on the people living there, some of whom require regular medical treatment.

He said: "It's heavily a community of older people, and it seemed cold-hearted the way SPEN were looking at the situation - it was unacceptable, given the number of people that needed support.

"The residents of Fordell Gardens were overlooked and forgotten, and there wasn't support in place to help them."

Mr Barratt said that both local and national government needed to review how park homes factor into emergency resilience planning.

A spokesperson for SPEN said the individual homes at the site were not the company's responsibility.

They said: "The residents are not customers of SP Energy Networks. 

"We operate the electricity network up to the residential park home estate owner's meter, everything after that belongs to them and they are responsible for the maintenance and repairs to that part of the network and any customers they may have."

Repairs across Scotland are continuing in the aftermath of the storm, which saw a teenager die after a tree crashed onto his car.

SPEN said around 97% of its customers in the south of Scotland and across the central belt had their power restored by Monday.

Scottish and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN) which deals with supplies in the north of the country and some parts of the central belt, said it expected to complete restoring supplies by the end of Monday.