Dear Editor
I am currently renting a property on the Spring Estate in Bequia and have been doing so for the last few years. It is so encouraging that St Vincent and the Grenadines has been upgrading its tourist facilities across St Vincent and the Grenadines to offer a truly world-class experience.
Vinlec’s inability to maintain a continuous power supply to all parts of Bequia appears to be undoing all this good work. While I understand the need for scheduled maintenance, I find it difficult to comprehend the continuous power outages in the Spring Area that occur whenever there are strong winds.
Having spoken to their engineers, it would seem that there are a number of tree branches that are hitting the lines whenever there is a strong wind and causing the supply boxes to blow their fuses.
While the Vinlec team responds quickly to repairs, this approach may not be the most effective in addressing the issue in the short or long term. Surely the answer has to be preventative maintenance. If the Vinlec team could spend some time trimming the offending trees and bush, then they would not be continually having to visit the site every two days, which could have been prevented. This work, which is repetitive and quite unnecessary, must be hitting Vinlec hard financially.
Furthermore, when power is restored, this has resulted in surges that have been responsible for wrecking homeowners’ electrical appliances, such as stoves and refrigerators, which they have to bear the expense of replacing due to no fault of their own. This situation is completely unacceptable, and as a visiting tourist, I have been deprived of cooking facilities for nearly a week, while the homeowner has to arrange for the delivery and installation of a replacement stove. In addition, food thaws in freezers, creating a financial burden for homeowners through no fault of their own.
You also need to be aware that on the top road of Spring, there are a number of wooden power poles leaning over at angles, which are almost laughable. Once again, it is crucial to perform preventative maintenance to prevent these poles from falling over. Failure to do so could result in a lengthy repair process, potentially leading to a period without electricity or internet for several days or even weeks.
If I decide to visit Bequia again, I expect Vinlec to provide a proactive solution to these issues. Mr Carlos James,, who is doing such a wonderful job,ink,, will be very disappointed to learn that his excellent work is being undone through lack of foresight to address underlying and obvious problems within the Vinlec network,, which will surely put off returning visitors like myself from visiting Bequia if their vacation is continually interrupted by power outages.
Despite contacting the customer services team at Vinlec, several homeowners in Spring have not received a reply or even an acknowledgement of their emails. In addition, some homeowners have spoken to the Head of Customer Services at Vinlec, but again, nothing has happened.
