State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, has called on Ausgrid and their accredited service provider, Transelect, to stop a power outage that will cost a local Maryland business more than $40,000 in sales.
Ausgrid has authorised Transelect to disconnect the power in parts of Maryland on Thursday this week, which will cause the Caltex Service Station at Maryland to be without power for 9 hours.
The outage will cause the business to close for the day and lose more than $40,000 in sales and jeopardise more than $100,000 of stock on site.
The Caltex site has been told that it must arrange its own power supply to remain open for the day and to protect its stock.
Quotes attributable to Member for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery
“This is yet another example of big business trying to ride roughshod over a small local operator.”
“I completely understand that the power needs to be off for the day but the people cutting the power need to ensure that they are working with local businesses to ensure there is minimal impact.”
“But to tell a local business that they either have to spend thousands of dollars getting in a generator or just wear the loss of $40,000 in sales is a joke.”
“The buck passing between Ausgrid and Transelect is disgraceful with each blaming the other.”
“This disruption should not go ahead until suitable arrangements have been made for an alternative power supply for the Caltex site.”
“I have put in calls to the Minister’s office to see if there is anything that the Government can do in this situation.”