Electricity bill refund for Fitties users

USERS of a Cleethorpes holiday park are to get a cash windfall after an irregularity with the way electricity was being charged was discovered.

North East Lincolnshire Council was alerted to the issue by a user of the Fitties and following a review, the current leaseholders are to receive a refund of either £25, £50 or £75, depending on the length of time of their individual use.

The settlement is expected to cost the council about £24,000.

Leader Councillor Chris Shaw, the portfolio holder for assets, said the refund, which has the approval of the authority's external auditors, reflected a fair offer to resolve the matter amicably.

"In such cases, councils are expected to try to sort these things out as soon as is practical, which is why we've made this offer to the users,'' he explained.

"We undertook the review after one of the chalet users raised issues over our compliance with the regulations in this area.

"We discovered we can't demonstrate full compliance over a period of time.

"While we believe the actual amounts aren't particularly big, we're also aware this potential surplus may have built up over a number of years.

"We believe in treating the people fairly and on a case-by-case basis and we think dealing with it in this way will avoid any such issues with electricity accounts arising again in future.''

Although the electricity rate available to the 320 users of the Fitties is below the standard domestic rate, it has been available via tokens because the council has previously negotiated favourable terms with the supplier.

The discrepancy was over the possible difference between what people were being charged and the amount of units covered by tokens.

The council is now putting in place a series of steps, including stricter meter reading and monitoring of token purchases, to avoid a repeat.

Letters to individual leaseholders were being sent out yesterday, with users of over three years being offered £75, two to three years £50 and one to two years £25.

"While this doesn't alter our position on other issues at the Fitties, we hope users will accept the refund in good faith and we're always happy to hear if they have any proposals on the supply of electricity that we can take forward,'' added Councillor Shaw.