Distressed homeowners are at their wits’ end over constant power cuts with some likening it to “living on an airport runway” due to the noise of temporary generators.

Outages at Brookfields housing estate, in Iwade, Sittingbourne have been forcing residents to live without regular electricity for more than six months.

It means temporary generators are being installed outside houses whenever the electricity's mains supply is damaged.

However, one resident, Tory councillor and 79-year-old Roger Clark, says the noise and fumes from each generator are now becoming unbearable at his home in Peach Blossom Drive.

The councillor for Bobbing, Iwade and Lower Halstow said: “At first there was a blowout here and a blow up there, and it’s just kept going to the point where something needs to be done because we can’t live like this.

“The outages can last for about six hours sometimes, for weeks and months in a row, and that’s tough because you have to really wrap up during the winter and be careful when it’s dark coming down the stairs.

“We never know when the outages are going to come, and when they do happen, it causes such a problem with all your household appliances where you worry about getting an electric shock.

“We then get a massive generator arrive which is loud and forces us to close our windows because of the noise and extraordinary diesel fumes - which is even harder to deal with when you have pulmonary fibrosis like I do.

“We also have to wait for them to come from Portsmouth to put the diesel in when the generator runs out, so it’s just purgatory as it can be here for months at a time.

“You try sleeping in your back bedroom to compensate for the noise but it doesn’t help because it’s the size of a lorry, and you never get any money reimbursed for the inconvenience.

“The buck keeps getting passed by some of the companies involved and that makes it feel like nobody wants to help because the problems just don't stop.

“It needs to be sorted properly so we don’t have Mickey Mouse power and remain living in the dark ages."

The 140-home development was first built by Persimmon Homes back in 2014, with further homes added until 2017.

It was thrown into the spotlight back in 2019 when a father-of-two said his newly-built home didn’t have the required fire safety measures fitted.

Yet the addition of Orchard Meadows - a new development of more than 60 houses which will be completed in autumn this year at nearby Grovehurst Road - has also contributed to the electricity issues according to resident Richard Leicester.

He added: "We are suffering directly as a result of living in a village which has seen the largest expansion in new build property builds in recent years.

“It is all part of yet another new build estate currently being built just across the road on Sheppey Way called Orchard Meadows, and is part of Persimmons Group - one of the largest house builders in the South East.

“The constant on and off of the generators also blew household appliances including laptop chargers, pond pumps and mobile phone adapters leading to hundreds of pounds worth of damage.

“After hoping it was fixed at the end of winter, where it left families in the cold, this week the power is again off and the generators are back with some saying it is like living on an airport runway.

“We all remain unaware of the cause, or when it will finally be resolved, as there remains no communication by any of the power companies."

Electricity in the South East, as well as London and the east of England, is controlled by UK Power Networks who own and maintain cables and lines for eight million customers across 30,000 square kilometres.

A spokesman for the organisation said: “Following faults on an underground cable, we have identified a defect on a section of cable and plans are being made to replace this to ensure reliable power supplies in the local area.

“It is possible some other sections of cable could be affected by the same issue and, if this is confirmed, this will also be replaced in stages to increase the reliability of the network as quickly as possible.”

However, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), one of the ‘Big Six’ energy suppliers in the UK, have been providing Brookfields with the generators so electricity can be transmitted.

A spokesman for the company added: “SSEN has been working to support our customers in Iwade, who have been affected by recurrent issues on the local electricity network.

“Last week, SSEN engineers responded quickly to reports of another fault, installing generators while UK Power Networks undertook repairs.

“Generators were in place for three days and have now been removed once more.”

However, Persimmon Homes South East say the proposed development at Orchard Meadows is in fact using a different supply to the one affected.

A spokesman explained: “While the outages are caused by a specific issue with UK Power Networks, rather than new housing development, we understand residents’ concerns about the faults which have affected their supply.

“We hope these repairs can be made with all possible speed so that people living on the estate can enjoy a normal electricity supply without outages or the need for generators.”