Cooker delay leaves Hartlepool family unable to prepare meals for more than a week

Brian Boyes bought a new cooker from Bright House two weeks ago.

It was delivered to his home in Belle Vue the same day but could not be installed because the location of the cooker on-off switch on the wall was deemed too close in case of fire.

Brian, 47, was told by his housing provider that an electrician would be round on Wednesday of this week to do rewiring work so the cooker could be fitted.

But he was frustrated after being told the message had been sent in error and no-one would be coming.

After being contacted by the Mail, the Guinness Partnership has apologised and said it is sending someone round today to do the work.

Brian, a cleaner, who lives with patner Wendy Harvey, 48, and 12-year-old daughter Michaela, said: “Because the switch is above the cooker Bright House said it was dangerous.

“We have had no hot food for over a week. I have been able to make pasta using the kettle but it’s no good for a 12-year-old child. It has cost us £100 on takeaways for her.”

Brian received a text message from Guinness on January 17 saying someone would be out to do the repair on January 24.

But after checking on the day he says he was told the message must have been sent by mistake.

He said: “They would have mended the wires and the cooker could have got installed that day. It’s just getting ridiculous.”

Brian said phone calls to Guinness were not returned.

The Guinness Partership said in a statement: “We are sorry the contractor did not arrive to complete the rewiring and arrangements have now been made with Mr Boyes to carry out the work on Saturday morning.”