YEDL and Balfour Beattie shocking or not?

[markwuzere]

the story is that a couple of years ago Yedl employed Balfour Beattie to replace our overhead cables with a new underground electric supply the whole thing was a drag that took far longer than they originally stated etc, Two years or so on and i needed to shut off my mains water at the external stop cock and lo and behold whet do i find, some plonker decided that they would run the mains electric cable through the same access chamber as the mains water thus making my stopcock inaccessible collapsing in part of the chamber and mixing mains water and electric in the same spot. Now is it just me or is that a big no no, is it as dangerous as i believe? Certainly the gent from YEDL i spoke to seemed quite shocked and a little surprised when i informed him, just have to wait now for them to send out an engineer to have a look, so what do you guys thing am i over reacting is it ok or is it as dangerous as i think? :shock:

 

[Racers]

Hi,

You are lucky you have an external stop cock, our is pluged with a bolt, and I could do with replacing the stop cock under the kitchen sink.


Pete

 

[henton49er]

In theory, you should be safe as the electric cable will be well insulated. However, this is extremely poor construction practice, and a firm of BB's size and abilities should not have done this. Mind you, I have heard it said that Balfour's initials BB actually stands for "Beyond Belief". You might think that quite apt in your circumstances.

I would press very hard for a solution which clearly separates your water stopcock from the electricity cable (at no expense to yourself, I might add).

Were Yedl responsible for supervising Balfour's work? If so, they have questions to answer as well!!

Mike.

 

[newt]

The supply companies seem to employ idiots. We had the overhead cables replaced in our road, increased height, EU requirement, even though the only way into our road is via a bridge which is lower than the original cables. They damaged/ destroyed domestic equipment in 80 homes due to the phases being incorrectly connected. We had 12 items damaged and a fire in the bedroom due to a set top box catching fire. The engineer that led the enquiry said the company that did the installation sacked all those involved. One other thing, the installation company contracted another company to come and remove the damaged equipment for repair; 4 vans arrived in half an hour after the event and they are based 100 miles away. All I can say is they were not on another job and they have very fast vans, you of course can come to your own conclusion.

 

[markwuzere]

have someone from YEDL coming to see me on monday so hope to get some answers then

 

[barkwindjammer]

Tell the 'man' a reporter is coming to see you also-dont disclose which newspaper :wink: and see what he offers you as 'inconvenience money' :-$

 

[Esox Lucius]

Seems like bad practise to me Markwurze but that said the cable should be safe though to touch. Think of the poor sods who have to work on it alive when its belting with rain, snow and standing water.

Trouble with the eletric companies is that with privatisation and competition in connections the governement insisited on splitting the eletric boards to make them more accessible to the general public. Seems to me that to comply with these rules is failing us all and the total blame does not sit with the eletric boards.

Also as YEDL have used BB to do their work then without a doubt they are responsible as the principle contractor. Wether you get "inconvienience" money for it is doubtful. Most of the companies have a set rate for payments but these usually only transfer into power cuts of either a regular frequency or duration. Replacement or repairs to appliances through system faults (usually neutral failings) are also covered but you may have to badger them to get what you want.

Good Luck

Mark

 

[markwuzere]

not after any inconvenience money all i really want is a safe supply off electric/water so if they separate the supplies and give me a working accessible stopcock i'll be more than happy

 

[Dibs-h]

not after any inconvenience money all i really want is a safe supply off electric/water so if they separate the supplies and give me a working accessible stopcock i'll be more than happy

Why don't you ring the Water lot instead. Tell them you need to turn the external stopcock off (that's their responsibility) but you can't as there are electricity cables in the same duct.

(that is unless you already have & I've missed that )

Dibs

 

[markwuzere]

not after any inconvenience money all i really want is a safe supply off electric/water so if they separate the supplies and give me a working accessible stopcock i'll be more than happy

Why don't you ring the Water lot instead. Tell them you need to turn the external stopcock off (that's their responsibility) but you can't as there are electricity cables in the same duct.

(that is unless you already have & I've missed that )

Dibs

tried that but they wont go near it until the electric cable is moved so i have to call them back after yedl has been to arrange a visit from them

 

[Dibs-h]

not after any inconvenience money all i really want is a safe supply off electric/water so if they separate the supplies and give me a working accessible stopcock i'll be more than happy

Why don't you ring the Water lot instead. Tell them you need to turn the external stopcock off (that's their responsibility) but you can't as there are electricity cables in the same duct.

(that is unless you already have & I've missed that )

Dibs

tried that but they wont go near it until the electric cable is moved so i have to call them back after yedl has been to arrange a visit from them

The water supply to the stopcock is their supply. If their is an electric cable in the duct - that's not your headache (altho it may seem that way). Tell the Water lot to go and do one and that it's their responsibility not yours to sort out the issues.

I would get onto whatever ombudsman is responsible and lodge a complaint.

You run the risk of being the poor soul getting the runaround by both lots and sod all getting done or taking forever.

At the end of the day - you have a supply of water, which you pay for & of their are issues, etc. then it's upt othe water lot to sort out.

HIH

Dibs

 

[markwuzere]

as a quick update, YEDL came on tuesday and moved the cable by digging a great big hole in my concrete drive and then making a poor effort at fixing it, but that don't matter as anglian water came on friday and have to dig it all back out again as YEDL have managed to now completely block any access to the stopcock by burying it in rubble etc,. I wonder in this time of cutbacks and austerity what the final bill for all this incompetence is going to be, Mark

 

[RogerS]

...... I wonder in this time of cutbacks and austerity what the final bill for all this incompetence is going to be, Mark

Nothing at all to do with cutbacks etc. These are private companies with shareholders.

 

[markwuzere]

...... I wonder in this time of cutbacks and austerity what the final bill for all this incompetence is going to be, Mark

Nothing at all to do with cutbacks etc. These are private companies with shareholders.

i know but as a nation we are supposed to be saving money and at the end off the day its the customer who has to pay for the incompetence off these companies through higher costs, bosses still get there bonuses and shareholders still get there dividends, Mark

 

[newt]

as a quick update, YEDL came on tuesday and moved the cable by digging a great big hole in my concrete drive and then making a poor effort at fixing it, but that don't matter as anglian water came on friday and have to dig it all back out again as YEDL have managed to now completely block any access to the stopcock by burying it in rubble etc,. I wonder in this time of cutbacks and austerity what the final bill for all this incompetence is going to be, Mark

Many are just useless and dont Bl--dy care. There always in a rush and seem to be angry that they have to do the work. :x

 

[Hivenhoe]

The supply companies seem to employ idiots. We had the overhead cables replaced in our road, increased height, EU requirement, even though the only way into our road is via a bridge which is lower than the original cables. They damaged/ destroyed domestic equipment in 80 homes due to the phases being incorrectly connected. We had 12 items damaged and a fire in the bedroom due to a set top box catching fire. The engineer that led the enquiry said the company that did the installation sacked all those involved. One other thing, the installation company contracted another company to come and remove the damaged equipment for repair; 4 vans arrived in half an hour after the event and they are based 100 miles away. All I can say is they were not on another job and they have very fast vans, you of course can come to your own conclusion.

++
It's not just the supply companies that employ cretins, it's riff across much of industry and govt..
The wonders of "least cost" tenders and not checking whether said companies employ people that are both competent and care enough?
One wonders who the real cowboys are.

 

[newt]

The supply companies seem to employ idiots. We had the overhead cables replaced in our road, increased height, EU requirement, even though the only way into our road is via a bridge which is lower than the original cables. They damaged/ destroyed domestic equipment in 80 homes due to the phases being incorrectly connected. We had 12 items damaged and a fire in the bedroom due to a set top box catching fire. The engineer that led the enquiry said the company that did the installation sacked all those involved. One other thing, the installation company contracted another company to come and remove the damaged equipment for repair; 4 vans arrived in half an hour after the event and they are based 100 miles away. All I can say is they were not on another job and they have very fast vans, you of course can come to your own conclusion.

++
It's not just the supply companies that employ cretins, it's riff across much of industry and govt..
The wonders of "least cost" tenders and not checking whether said companies employ people that are both competent and care enough?
One wonders who the real cowboys are.

I agree, nobody seems to care anymore, we never even had an apology, they really were idiots. They acually laughed when I went outside to tell them my TV had caught fire when they reconnected the power.