Charity's pledge to help people worried about their heating bills
A widow in her 80s has had her £693 electricity bill cut to just £29 after a community charity stepped in to help.
The retired pub landlady, who lives near Llangollen and suffers from heart and breathing problems, had been turning on the heating for just two hours a day, wearing six layers of clothing and boiling water on a camping stove after receiving the massive bill.
South Denbighshire Community Partnership (SDCP) helped set up a hydro-power electricity generating scheme in Corwen two years ago and are now ready to offer up to 20 places on it to eligible people struggling in fuel poverty in the Dee Valley.
Its chief executive officer Margaret Sutherland said: “We jumped on this case immediately.
“I was really worried about this lady because of the effect this bill was having on her mental health and because of the danger to her physical health – she has been boiling water for hot drinks on a camping stove in her kitchen instead of using an electric kettle.”
The pensioner, who has not been named, said she had never had problems with her electricity bills until she was moved to a new old person’s bungalow last November.
